GIFT  OF 

.    ri**&si^nsL, 


DEDICATED  TO 

LENA 


"GRIZZLY   GIANT— 8,000  YEARS   OLD 


DR.  MARION   THRASHER 


LONG    LIFE    IN 
CALIFORNIA 


BY 
MARION  THRASHER  M.D. 


Chicago 
M.  A.  DONOHUE  &  COMPANY 


Copyright  applied  for 
Dr.  Marion  Thrasher 


EXPLANATORY 

This  book  has  been  written  in  odd  moments  snatched 
from  a  busy  professional  life,  but  every  effort  has  been 
made  to  substantiate  all  data. 

As  centenarians  usually  have  no  contemporaries  to 
verify  their  ages,  we  must  rely  upon  their  relatives, 
acquaintances,  family  Bibles  or  church  records. 

In  every  instance  we  have  thus  endeavored  to  authen- 
ticate the  great  ages  of  the  California  centenarians  and 
thereby  establish  our  contention  that  we  have  in  the 
Golden  State  a  longevity  unparalleled  in  history.  In 
1913  we  made  a  tour  around  the  world,  gathering  data 
on  longevity  among  the  different  civilized  nations,  and 
we  found  our  deductions  correct.  We  first  visited  the 
Hawaiian  Islands,  and  here  the  humidity  of  the  climate — 
the  rainfall  being  the  heaviest  in  the  world,  reaching 
sometimes  250  inches  annually — develops  tuberculosis, 
and  we  found  no  centenarians  in  the  Islands. 

In  Japan  we  find  an  annual  rainfall  of  70  inches — 
and  that  with  the  poverty  of  the  people,  eating  improper 
food,  raw  fish  often  being  the  staple  diet,  wearing  scanty 
clothing,  living  in  bamboo  houses  in  rather  a  rigorous 
climate — produce  a  short-lived  people.  Interviewing 
many  Japanese  physicians — in  Tokio,  Kobe  and  Nag- 
asaki— we  failed  to  find  a  single  centenarian.  In  Manila 
short  life  was  the  rule  among  the  natives,  and  in  China 
no  data  of  longevity  was  obtainable.  In  India,  the  aver- 
age length  of  life,  outside  of  large  cities,  was  30  years, 


wfy'te  in  Calcutta,  Bombay  and  Colombo  it  was  only  20 
years.  In  Cairo,  Alexandria  and  Port  Said,  Egypt,  we 
could  not  find  a  record  of  a  single  well  authenticated 
centenarian — and  one  could  not  look  for  it  when  he 
saw  their  unwholesome  food,  lack  of  hygienic  observ- 
ances and  the  ever  present  and  abundant  fly,  scattering 
disease  germs  everywhere.  In  Palestine  we  find  the 
same  conditions  existing,  for  the  Turk  is  here  as  in 
Egypt,  and  with  unwashed  bodies,  illy  cooked  bread  and 
raw  cucumbers  eaten  with  salt — this  being  their  common 
diet — we  found  no  centenarians  either  in  Palestine, 
Jaffa  or  Jerusalem. 

In  Europe  and  the  British  Isles  we 'found  the  data 
on  longevity,  previously  obtained  from  our  American 
ambassadors,  which  we  have  given  in  other  pages  of 
Jhis  book,  corroborated. 

AUTHOR, 


INTRODUCTION 

In  all  the  historic  ages  of  the  past,  up  to  the  present 
decade,  man  has  been  kindlier  to  the  domestic  animals 
than  to  himself. 

Horses,  cattle,  and  dogs  even,  have  been  care- 
fully bred — the  weaklings  eliminated — so  their  greatest 
bodily  vigor  and  its  accompanying  long  life  could  be 
assured.  But  the  human  family  has  been  ignored;  the 
physically,  mentally  and  morally  unfit — the  meanest — the 
degenerate,  even,  known  to  be  the  most  prolific  of  them 
all — are  permitted  to  breed  their  kind  and  people  the 
world. 

Do  not  let  us  boast  of  our  lineage;  the  pedigree  of 
the  equine,  bovine  and  canine  thoroughbreds  surpass 
the  heraldry  of  King  or  Emperor. 

While  this  book  is  written  to  present  factors  that 
make  for  longevity — chiefly  climatic,  hygienic  and  di- 
etetic— its  ulterior  object  is  to  call  attention  to  the  im- 
portance of  cultivating  abstemiousness — temperance, 
mental,  moral  and  physical  vigor — qualities  which  lead 
up  to  the  maximum  of  human  development. 

DR.  MARION  THRASHER. 

San  Francisco,  1915. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I— Page  11. 

LONGEVITY. 

Buffon  and  Flourens  set  the  normal  limit  of  man's 
life  at  125  to  150  years.  Seneca  says:  "Man  does  not 
die ;  he  kills  himself."  No  man  has  attained  200  years. 

Essential  factors:  Climate,  food,  heredity  and  tem- 
perament. Average  length  of  life  in  India,  20  years; 
England,  37 ;  Massachusetts,  47 ;  California,  74. 

CHAPTER  II— Page  35. 

LONGEVITY  IN  OTHER  STATES,  COUNTRIES  AND  AGES. 

Phenomenal  ages  in  Bible,  mistaken  calculation. 
Pierre  Zortay,  a  Bulgarian  goat  herder,  184  years  old. 
Thos.  Parr,  152,  called  to  London  by  Charles  I.  David's 
"three  score  years  and  ten"  limit  of  life  only  half  the 
limit  in  California.  David  died  at  71,  Solomon  at  57, 
3,000  years  ago,  while  Noah  Raby  of  New  Jersey  died 
only  a  lew  years  since  at  126,  and  old  Gabriel  died  at 
Monterey,  CaL,  in  1890,  152  years  old,  as  authenticated 
by  the  church  records. 

CHAPTER  III— Page  48. 

FACTORS  THAT  MAKE  FOR  LONGEVITY. 

Climate:  Warm,  long  life;  cold,  short  life.  Cold 
Norway,  23 ;  warm  Spain,  400  centenarians. 

Sea  level  and  semi-tropical,  ideal  conditions.  Cali- 
fornia contains  every  requisite,  as  proven  by  whites  over 
100  and  Indians  140  years  still  living  and  in  excellent 


health.    Food  a  factor:    Meat-eating  Indians  live  to  be 
60  and  nut-  and  maize-eating  Indians  125  to  185. 

The  secret  of  long  life:  Every  man  can  fix  his 
longevity  by  climate  and  food, 

CHAPTER  IV— Page  88. 

THE  TREES  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

The  Flora  of  California  unsurpassed.  Pot  plants 
east,  trees  here — annuals  there,  perennials  here — 12 
months  growth  here,  6  months  East — Oaks  6  feet  in  di- 
ameter East,  27  feet  here— Forests  of  Redwood  5,500 
to  8,000  years  old  and  still  in  their  prime.  Fallen  trees 
400  years  lying  on  the  ground  show  no  signs  of  decay. 
The  "Grizzly  Giant"  of  Mariposa  scientists  believe  to 
be  8,000  years  old. 

CHAPTER  V— Page  96. 

INDIANS  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Indians  here  185  years  old  live  60  years  in  other 

states.     Old  Gabriel  at  Monterey,  152  years  old;  Dona 

Ulalia,   175.     A  California  Indian,  just  returned  from 

fighting  in  the  Mexican  Revolution  of  1911,  120  years 
old. 

CHAPTER  VI— Page  107. 

LONGEVITY  AMONG  THE  WHITES  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

More  centenarians  here  than  in  any  other  State  or 
country — 35  centenarians  in  San  Francisco.  Captain 
Diamond  at  Crocker's  Old  People's  Home,  118  years  old 
and  vigorous ;  Mrs.  Electa  Kennedy  arrived  here  in  1852 
with  consumption — recovered  and  is  now  (1915)  106 
years  old  and  in  excellent  health. 

Many  other  centenarians  of  like  experience.  More 
than  400  centenarians  in  California,  many  of  whom  give 
the  secret  of  their  long  life — and  that  secret  is  the  Cli- 
mate of  California. 


Long  Life  in  California 

LONGEVITY. 
Chapter  I. 

Longevity  in  Trees,  Men  and  Animals — The  Normal  Length 
of  Life  According  to  Buffon  and  Flourens — Long  Life  in 
Different  Ages — Insanity  and  Genius — California  Climate 
.Conducive  to  Long  Life — Elaine  and  Cleveland — Voca- 
tions Determine  Longevity — Napoleon  and  Wellington. 

Since  Adam  and  Eve  dwelt  in  that  historic  but  possi- 
bly mythical  Garden  of  Eden,  the  Prolongation  of  Hu- 
man Life  has  been  the  most  fascinating  problem  that  has 
challenged  the  attention  of  mankind.  The  Persian  and 
Greek  sages,  centuries  before  Christ,  summoned  their 
intellectual  forces  to  solve  it,  but  in  vain — the  Scholas- 
ticism of  the  Medieval  Ages  took  it  up  zealously,  but 
with  kindred  results — and  today,  in  this  Twentieth  Cen- 
tury, every  intelligent  mind  seeks,  though  often  blindly, 
its  solution. 

No  man  since  the  dawn  of  creation  has  escaped 
Death;  yet  each  individual,  by  harkening  to  Hygienic 
and  Dietetic  truth,  barring  accident,  can  live  to  an  ad- 
vanced age.  Every  man  owes  it  to  himself — to  his 
friends  and  to  the  commonwealth — to  so  care  for  his 
body,  that  its  healthy  action  may  make  him  a  valued 
citizen,  and  that  the  years  of  his  life  may  be  extended 

11 


12  LONG  LrlFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

to  their  normal  limit.     "Every  man  is  entitled  to  his 
century,"  says  Sir  James  Crichton  Browne. 

Longevity  may  be  defined  as  the  duration  of  life 
that  a  healthy  individual  would  attain,  under  the  most 
favorable  conditions.  Wild  animals,  undisturbed,  live 
out  their  full  term  of  life.  Man  is  the  only  exception — 
and  of  human  kind,  not  more  than  one  in  a  million  fills 
out  his  natural  limit.  Seneca,  the  Roman  philosopher, 
thinking  along  the  same  lines,  twenty  centuries  ago,  said 
in  his  work  on  "Shortness  of  Life" :  "Man  does  not 
die;  he  kills  himself."  While  all  the  other  animals  in 
their  wild  untrammeled  state  know  by  instinct  how  to 
live,  what  to  eat  and  drink  to  live  out  their  allotted  time, 
man  by  his  imprudence  in  diet,  drink  and  manifold  ex- 
cesses, dies  before  one-fourth  his  life  has  been  lived. 
Animals  eat  only  what  is  good  and  wholesome  for 
them — the  horse  and  the  hog  have  sense  enough  to  shun 
what  is  injurious  to  them — but  man  eats  and  drinks  any- 
thing and  everything — consumes  the  most  indigestible 
of  foods,  washing  it  down  with  poisonous  slops,  and 
wonders  why  he  does  not  live  to  be  a  centenarian ! 

In  theory  we  all  desire  long  life — in  practice  we  ab- 
breviate our  lives  to  the  minimum. 

"A  short  life  and  a  merry  one,"  is  the  ranting  bombast 
of  a  braggadocio  and  a  fool.  Why  this  marvelous 
mechanism  of  man — perfect  in  its  minutest  organism — 
combining  a  God-like  intelligence  with  a  body  sculptors 
have  imitated  but  have  never  equalled — should  be  ruth- 
lessly destroyed  by  himself,  is  one  of  the  inexplicable 
wonders  of  our  creation. 

The  marble  statue  of  Apollo  Belvidere,  the  writer 
saw  in  the  Vatican  at  Rome,  the  world's  famous  work 
of  art,  is  not  greater  in  the  perfection  of  manly  beauty 
than  that  possessed  by  thousands  of  young  men  in  our 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  13 


midst  today;  yet  the  inanimate  marble  Apollo  is  as  ten- 
derly cared  for  as  a  priceless  jewel,  while  the  living 
man — noble,  intellectual  and  refined,  with  a  delicate  and 
sensitive  physical  structure — gives  this  wonderful  body 
of  his  not  the  attention  he  gives  to  his  horse  or  dog. 

All,  of  sound  mentality,  desire  a  long,  happy  and  use- 
ful life.  With  our  intelligence,  longevity  should  be  the 
rule — now  it  is  the  exception. 

How  many  years  should  a  man  live  when  conditions 
are  favorable?  Or  what  is  the  normal  length  of  man's 
life — had  the  generations  before  him  lived,  like  the  other 
animals,  according  to  their  natural  law  ? 

Buffon  and  Flourens  have  both  noted  a  fixed  relation 
between  maturity  and  the  length  of  life  in  the  mammalia 
in  both  animals  and  man. 

The  horse,  cow,  sheep  and  deer  live  six  times  the 
length  of  their  period  of  growth,  according  to  Buffon, 
and  five  times  according  to  Flourens.  The  horse  matures 
from  4  to  6 — and  lives  approximately  from  20  to  30 
years.  Cattle  mature  at  4  and  live  to  20  years ;  sheep  at 
3  and  live  to  15 ;  dogs  at  3  and  live  to  15 ;  cats  at  2  and 
live  to  10;  elephants  mature  at  20  and  live  to  be  100. 
This  ratio  is  the  rule,  but  exceptions  do  exist,  as  Weis- 
mann  and  Bunge  have  pointed  out.  Among  the  mammalia, 
man  is  the  only  one  that  lives  beyond  the  century  mark. 
As  we  descend,  however,  in  the  vertebrates,  longevity  in- 
creases. The  white-headed  vulture  has  been  known  to 
live  150  years. 

The  great  tortoise  of  the  Galapagos  Islands  lives 
from  200  to  300  years — one  recently  brought  to  Cali- 
fornia was  estimated  by  our  naturalists  to  be  800  years 
old — while  toads  have  been  found  dormant,  imbedded  in 
rock,  reviving  on  exposure  to  air,  that  had  been  there 
500  years  and  possibly  much  longer.  Bingley  tells  us 


14  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


in  his  "Animal  Kingdom"  that  a  stone  cutter  by  the 
name  of  Charlton,  found  in  the  Isle  of  Ely  a  living  toad 
enclosed  in  a  block  of  marble.  The  cavity  in  which  it 
was  contained  was  somewhat  larger  than  the  animal,  but 
nearly  of  the  same  figure.  The  toad  seemed  in  perfect 
health — although  the  marble  was  on  all  sides  several 
inches  thick. 

The  less  brain  matter  possessed  by  an  animal,  the 
greater  its  longevity.  The  rule  holds  good  in  man  as 
well.  No  man  of  high  intellectual  attainments  has  lived 
a  century — few  of  them  reach  90 — while  our  geniuses, 
as  a  rule,  died  under  40. 

Died  at 

George  Bancroft 91 

Thomas  Carlyle  86 

Wm.  Cullen  Bryant 84 

Benjamin  Franklin 84 

Thomas  Jefferson 83 

Goethe  83 

Victor  Hugo   83 

Lord  Palmerston  81 

Not  any  of  them  attained  the  age  of  100.  The  genius 
is  shorter  lived  still,  as  abnormal  brain  development, 
through  its  high  nerve  tension,  impairs  the  physical 
vitality.  • 

Alexander  the  Great,  Mozart,  Lord  Byron,  Poe, 
Burns,  Keats,  Lanier,  Henry  Kirk  White  and  Pollok,  all 
died  under  40.  The  highest  mental  culture  can  only  be 
attained  by  a  sedentary  life — and  a  sedentary  life  is  a 
foe  to  longevity.  Ambition  kills  by  over-working  the 
mind  or  body.  Great  brain  activity  detracts  from  phys- 
ical poise,  and  consequently  from  bodily  health. 

The  inactive  brain  of  Old  Gabriel — the  Indian  who 
died  at  Monterey,  Cal.,  in  1890,  aged  151— and  Pierre 
Zortay,  the  goat  herder  of  Hungary,  dying  in  1724,  aged 
185,  are  examples  of  phenomenal  longevity,  which  could 


LYDIA   SHARPLESS,   105   YEARS   OLD 


CAP.  G.  E.  D.  DIAMOND,  118  YEARS  OLD 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  15 

not  have  existed  had  they  not  lived  a  semi-vegetative  life. 

What  a  contrast  to  these  lives  do  we  have  in  that 
brilliant  and  erratic  boy  genius — Thomas  Chatterton,  the 
wonder  of  the  literary  worlcl — who  burnt  his  young  life 
out  in  his  teens,  dying  by  his  own  hand  in  his  seventeenth 
year. 

Dr.  Arthur  McDonald,  in  an  article  on  "Insanity  and 
Genius,"  claims  that  both  are  abnormal,  but  singularly 
akin,  and  among  the  erratic  geniuses  mentions  Dante, 
Tasso,  Pascal,  Mirabeau,  Pope,  Voltaire,  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards, Goethe,  Victor  Hugo,  Boileau,  Chataubriand  and 
Schopenhaur.  "Genius  and  great  talent,"  he  observes, 
"are  those  forms  of  abnormality  most  beneficial,  how- 
ever, to  society." 

Genius  being  a  marvelous  mental  precocity — or  brain 
development,  while  it  may  receive  the  admiration  of  man- 
kind— like  a  comet  sweeping  across  the  heavens — its  life, 
like  the  stellar  wonder,  is  almost  as  brief.  , 

Most  physiologists  agree  with  Buffon  and  Flourens, 
and  assign  to  man  as  to  other  animals,  the  correspond- 
ing ratio  of  maturity  and  longevity. 

Man  maturing  at  25  years  should  have  125  to  150 
as  his  natural  term  of  life.  But,  you  inquire,  How  can 
we  make  this  short  term  of  life  coincide  with  the  early 
Bible  ages?  Adam  living  930  years,  Methuselah  969 
and  Noah  950,  are,  of  course,  mistakes  in  calculation. 
In  some  of  the  ages  they  counted  months  as  years,  and 
again  reckoned  seasons  as  years. 

Alexander  Winchell,  a  very  high  authority; — who  was 
the  writer's  honored  teacher  in  the  University  of  Michi- 
gan in  his  "Geology  and  Paleontology,"  says  that  "the 
great  Bible  ages  meant  the  ages  of  the  family  line  and 
not  of  one  individual." 

The  Biblical  biographies  as  they  are  chronologically 


16  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


arranged  would  of  themselves  disprove  these  great  ages. 

Abraham  was  born  only  two  years  after  Noah's  death, 
and  lived  but  175  years,  whereas  Noah's  age  is  given  as 
950  years.  This  great  difference  in  man's  life  —  of  nearly 
800  years  —  dropping  in  one  generation  from  950  to  175  — 
could  only  be  reasonably  explained  on  the  hypothesis  of 
a  mistake  in  reckoning. 

From  Abraham,  who  lived  1996  B.  C,  to  Pierre 
Zortay  of  Hungary  is  3,360  years;  we  find  little  or  no 
change  in  man's  longevity  —  increasing  rather  than  other- 
wise —  as  Pierre  Zortay  lived  ten  years  longer  than  Abra- 
ham. 

Isaac,  Abraham's  son,  lived  180  years;  Jacob,  147; 
Joseph,  110;  Moses,  120;  David,  71,  and  Solomon,  the 
wisest  of  them  all,  died  at  57. 

Pliny,  writing  76  A.  D.,  gives  the  following  statistics 
of  longevity  in  his  time: 

In  Italy,  between  the  Appenines  and  the  River  Po, 
there  were  found  — 


54  persons 100  years  old 

57  persons 110  years  old 


4  persons 130  years  old 

3  persons 140  years  old 


2  persons 120  years  old 

From  Pliny's  time  to  ours  there  is  but  little  change 
in  the  length  of  man's  life. 

Noah  Raby,  the  U.  S.  mortality  statistics  of  1908 
tell  us,  died  in  Middlesex  County,  New  Jersey,  in  1904, 
131  years  old,  and  old  John  Long,  a  colored  man,  died 
near  Cincinnati  in  1886,  141  years  old. 

This  data  leads  us  to  a  scientific  as  well  as  logical 
conclusion  that  from  the  beginning  till  now,  man's  term 
of  life  has  varied  but  little,  in  the  ages  of  the  past — 
the  reckless,  the  dissipated  and  weakly  bred  dying  young, 
while  the  careful,  under  the  most  favorable  conditions, 
as  to  climate,  temperament  and  ancestry — a  rare  com- 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  17 


bination — have  lived  out  the  years  nature  intended  them 
to  live,  which  is  from  125  to  150  years. 

Still  is  it  not  marvelous,  after  all,  to  think  of  a  cen- 
tenarian, or  even  a  nonogenarian,  when  we  realize  that 
out  of  100,000  children  born,  50,000  die  before  they  reach 
5  years  of  age  ? 

Now,  again,  take  100,000  children  who  have  sur- 
vived and  reached  the  age  of  10  years — out  of  that  num- 
ber only  three  live  to  be  95. 

Truly  our  modern  civilization  of  which  we  boast  is 
sadly  wanting  in  the  art  of  Hygiene  and  Dietetics,  when 
we  witness  this  appalling  devastation  of  our  species  be- 
fore they  have  finished  half  their  normal  life. 

Air,  food,  water,  heredity  and  temperament  are  all 
influential  factors  in  longevity. 

Air,  when  impure,  fosters  tuberculosis,  and  consump- 
tion kills  one-fourth  of  the  human  race.  Food,  if  un- 
wholesome, shortens  life ;  water  may  carry  death-dealing 
germs ;  spirituous  liquors  destroy  untold  millions ;  hered- 
ity, if  bad  or  good,  minimizes  or  lengthens  life — all  of 
which  will  be  fully  amplified  in  succeeding  chapters. 

Temperament,  last  but  not  by  any  means  least,  is  an 
influence  in  longevity  that  we  cannot  ignore.  If  a  placid 
disposition,  all  things  being  equal,  life  will  be  long — if 
irascible,  life  will  be  brief. 

The  writer  once  owned  a  team  of  horses — a  Jersey 
match — i.  e.,  a  black  and  a  white  one.  The  black  was 
unexcitable  and  serene,  the  white  peevish,  and  at  the  end 
of  a  journey  the  white  horse  was  foaming  and  fagged, 
while  the  black  had  not  turned  a  hair,  and  seemed  a§ 
fresh  as  when  we  started.  In  all  the  animals,  the  skin 
of  the  white  one  is  thinner;  he  is  more  sensitive — he 
worries — he  dies  younger. 

Men  have  the  same  identical  characteristics.     Elaine 


18  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

and  Cleveland,  our  two  distinguished  Americans,  were 
examples. 

The  night  before  the  Presidential  election  in  1884, 
the  writer  was  in  the  same  boat  and  train  with  Mr. 
Elaine,  from  New  York  to  Boston.  He  had  seen  Elaine 
eight  years  before  in  Congress  at  Washington,  and  the 
eloquent  orator  from  Maine  was  then  young,  brilliant 
and  dashing — he  was  indeed  the  "Plumed  Knight"  that 
Ingersoll  dubbed  him— now  he  was  seamed,  and  wearied 
and  saddened. 

An  Indianapolis  Democratic  paper  had  unearthed  a 
skeleton  from  Elaine's  closet,  and  that  with  the  worries 
of  the  campaign — the  fiercest  known  in  American  his- 
tory— he  was  plainly  dying,  and  died  soon  after  at  the 
early  age  of  63.  He  was  the  ' 'white  horse." 

Cleveland  was  his  antithesis  in  temperament,  and 
when  the  Republican  sleuths  had  ferreted  out  a  similar 
scandal  on  Cleveland,  and  reporters  flocked  like  a  lot  of 
vultures  to  the  salacious  repast,  he  routed  them,  "horse, 
foot  and  dragoon,"  when  they  requested  an  explanation, 
by  nonchalantly  telling  them  "to  go  and  ask  Marie,"  a 
nameless  individual  whom  no  one  knew.  Cleveland  was 
the  black  horse,  nerveless,  and  lived  to  serve  through 
two  subsequent  Presidential  terms,  and  died  at  an  ad- 
vanced age. 

Napoleon  and  Wellington  are  further  instances  of 
temperament  and  its  bearing  on  longevity.  Napoleon, 
the  greatest  Frenchman  France  ever  had,  and  the  most 
loyal,  was  not  a  Frenchman  at  all,  but  a  Corsican;  yet 
of  such  a  nervous  temperament  that  we  might  class  him 
among  the  Celtic  neurotics.  Sherman's  truism,  "War 
is  hell,"  was  applicable  in  Napoleon's  time  as  now,  and 
the  great  general  fretted  unceasingly — from  the  siege  of 
Toulon  to  Waterloo — and  died  at  52  with  cancer  of  the 


LONG  LIFE   IN  CALIFORNIA.  19 

stomach,  a  cancer  developed  undoubtedly  from  indiges- 
tion, and  the  indigestion  from  worry. 

Wellington,  fitly  named  the  "Iron  Duke,"  a  man  des- 
titute of  nerves,  as  his  sobriquet  would  indicate,  was  the 
black  horse,  and  did  not  fret,  and  lived  to  be  83. 

Marriage,  when  placid,  fosters  longevity;  when 
stormy,  it  results  in  a  short  life  or  a  divorce  court. 

Matthew  and  Mark's  advice,  "What,  therefore,  God 
hath  joined  together,  let  not  man  put  asunder,"  is  good 
advice — but  when  the  devil  joins  them,  and  he  officiates 
ten  times  to  God's  one,  a  divorce  court  is  the  only 
rational  remedy. 

Judging  from  the  records  of  our  police  courts,  a  large 
percentage  of  our  marriages — under  our  lax  laws — are 
vile  combinations  of  wrangling  and  discord,  uniting  often 
the  drunkard  and  the  prostitute,  the  criminal  and  the 
pervert,  the  bully  and  the  neurotic,  the  deaf  and  the  dumb, 
the  deformed  and  the  cripple,  to  furnish  us  our  future 
citizens.  To  charge  God  with  all  this  miserable  work 
would  certainly  be  impeaching  His  wisdom,  and  to  say 
these  marriages  should  not  be  "put  assunder"  would  be 
calling  in  question  man's  intelligence. 

All  lines  of  thought,  psychology,  literature,  philos- 
ophy, art,  science  and  invention  have  been  searchingly 
developed ;  but  the  art  of  eating  rationally  is  an  un- 
known art — and  living  out  our  normal  life  (of  125  to 
150  years)  is  occasionally  studied  as  a  theory,  but  rarely 
practiced. 

When  we  advocate  the  Simple  Life  that  Wagner  ad- 
vanced, and  the  abstemiousness  of  Cornaro,  as  con- 
ducive to  longevity,  the  epicure  asks,  "Is  it  worth  it? 
Is  not  wine,  whisky  and  beer  preferable  to  water  and 
milk?  Is  not  a  French  or  Italian  dinner,  with  its  com- 
prehensive menu,  more  to  be  desired  than  a  plain  New 


20  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

England  dinner?  Is  not  drunkenness,  carousal  and  rev- 
elry jollier  than  a  quiet  evening  with  books  and  music 
and  the  converse  of  old  friends  ?" 

Every  man  must  decide  for  himself.  If  a  short  life 
and  a  merry  one  is  preferred,  he  is  at  liberty  to  do  as  he 
likes — but  remember,  if  you  "sow  the  wind,  you  reap 
the  whirlwind;"  if  you  violate  Nature's  laws,  you  pay 
for  it  in  pain,  misery  and  a  short  life.  In  that  Book  we 
all  venerate,  whether  or  not  we  follow  its  teachings,  the 
stern  edict  has  come  down  to  us  from  a  distant  past, 
the  "wages  of  sin  is  death,"  the  sinning  including  any- 
thing and  everything  that  impairs  and  destroys  the  body, 
and  its  penalty  is  as  inexorable  as  fate. 

Longevity  should  be  greatly  desired  by  all  men,  if  for 
no  other  reason  than  that  it  gives  us  freedom  from  pain, 
sickness  and  disease,  as  it  is  an  incontrovertible  fact  that 
long-lived  people  are  immune  from  most  of  the  ills  of 
life. 

Pure  air,  pure  food,  absence  of  worry,  and  better 
sanitary  surroundings — conditions  generally  found  in 
the  country,  and  essential  to  health — produce  prepon- 
deratingly  more  old  people  in  rural  districts  than  are 
found  in  towns  and  cities.  Among  the  centenarians  of 
history  we  know  of  but  few  city-bred,  while  the  country 
can  produce  its  thousands,  ranging  from  100  to  185  years 
of  age. 

If  we  would  strive  for  long  life  as  we  strive  for  the 
"Almighty  Dollar,"  instead  of  one-third  of  our  popula- 
tion being  disabled  from  sickness,  living  out  at  best  a 
short  and  miserable  life,  America  would  be  a  country 
peopled  by  centenarians. 

Dr.  Edward  Jarvis  says  that  "1,500.000  persons  die 
annually  in  the  United  States,  and  at  all  times  there  are 
3,000,000  persons  seriously  ill. 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  tl 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  out  of  the  fatality  list, 
1,000,000  persons  could  be  saved  annually  by  hygienic 
and  dietetic  care,  and  at  least  2,000,000  persons  seriously 
ill  could  be  kept  well  and  saved  the  suffering  entailed 
on  them  by  disease,  if  personal,  municipal  and  federal 
hygiene  were  strictly  enforced.  Outside  of  the  serious 
illness  we  have  mentioned,  we  have  a  lighter  sickness, 
such  as  malaria,  of  which  we  have  3,000,000  cases  in  the 
United  States  annually,  which  is  practically  entirely  pre- 
ventable." 

Many  efforts  have  been  made  by  biologists  and  other 
scientists  to  accurately  determine  the  normal  longevity 
of  man. 

Even  Buffon's  estimate  of  150  years  is  evidently  too 
short,  as  we  have  numerous  instances  of  persons  living 
far  beyond  that  period,  so  we  are  led  to  believe  that  200 
years  possibly  would  be  nearer  the  limit  of  man's  nat- 
ural life.  A  writer,  speaking  of  the  autopsy  made  on 
Thomas  Parr,  aged  152,  who  died  in  London  in  1636, 
says:  "His  death  is  a  corroborating  circumstance  that 
the  life  of  man,  by  attention  to<  the  laws  of  nature, 
might  probably  be  extended  to  the  term  of  200  years,  for 
on  his  body  being  opened  by  Dr.  Harvey,  it  was  found 
to  be  in  a  most  perfect  state,  the  only  cause  of  his  death 
being  a  mere  plethora,  brought  on  by  a  more  luxurious 
living  in  London  than  he  had  been  accustomed  to  in  his 
native  country,  where  his  food  was  very  plain  and  home- 
ly; hence  there  are  strong  grounds  for  asserting  that 
the  organization  and  vital  powers  of  many  men  are 
capable  of  supporting  a  duration  and  activity  for  200 
years." 

In  determining  causes  that  lead  up  to  longevity,  we 
cannot  forget  atavism.  The  writer  is  partially  bald, 
his  father  died  at  76,  with  a  heavy  growth  of  hair  on  his 


22  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

head — his  father  died  at  89,  with  abundance  of  hair — 
his  father,  the  writer's  paternal  great-grandfather,  died 
at  91  nearly  bald — heredity  here  going  over  two  genera- 
tions to  the  third. 

Going  back  twenty  generations,  each  of  us  has  a 
million  ancestors — and  is  it  any  wonder  that  the  pro- 
verbial "black  sheep'  'is  in  every  family,  when  we  con- 
sider that  among  these  million  ancestors  there  are  mur- 
derers, thieves,  forgers,  wantons,  highwaymen  and  every 
conceivable  genus  of  criminals  ? — it  is  a  matter  of  aston- 
ishment that  we  are  not  most  of  us  black  sheep.  Doubt- 
less we  would  be  were  it  not  for  the  corrective  influence 
of  church,  state,  newspapers  and  public  opinion,  forces 
that  have  been  handed  down  through  generations  as 
educational  legacies  of  higher  ideals. 

Longevity  is  not  a  calamity,  as  many  suppose — a 
synonym  for  imbecility — for  those  who  live  long  as  a 
rule  are  healthy  and  capable.  Old  age  is  now  alert,  in- 
dependent, able  to  do  literary  work,  and  advise  with  the 
wisdom  of  experience. 

The  modern  man  of  90  or  over  is  a  banker,  a  states- 
man, a  traveler,  sought  after  as  a  genial  mentor  and 
companion.  How  different  from  300  years  ago  in 
Shakespeare's  time,  when  the  seventh  age  of  man  was  the 
age  of  weakness,  decrepitude  and  senility,  "sans  teeth, 
sans  eyes,  sans  taste,  sans  everything." 

Longevity  means  then  health,  prosperity  and  happi- 
ness. Short  life  means  sickness,  suffering,  poverty  and 
misery. 

Dr.  George  M.  Gould  estimates  sickness  and  untimely 
death  in  the  United  States  to  cost  $3,000,000,000  annu- 
ally, of  which  at  least  one-third  is  preventable.  Lam- 
bert says:  "It  costs  no  more  to  'raise'  a  man  capable 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


of  living  for  80  years  than  it  does  to  'grow'  one  who  has 
not  the  capacity  of  living  to  be  40  years  old." 

Longevity  includes  a  wide  range  of  problems,  and 
like  eternity,  it  has  neither  beginning  nor  ending. 

Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  says :  "To  secure  health 
and  longevity  we  must  go  back  to  our  great-grandfather 
and  set  him  right."  Theoretically  true,  but  wholly  im- 
practicable. This  view  of  the  author  of  the  "Autocrat 
of  tEe  Breakfast  Table"  is  both  pessimistic  and  impossi- 
ble. 

The  biological  science  of  today  is  more  hopeful. 
P.  Chalmers  Mitchell  says :  "Three  chief  evils  that  hang 
over  us  are  disease,  old  age  and  death." 

Disease  has  in  a  measure  been  conquered  and  many 
of  our  optimistic  scientists  believe  that  in  a  few  decades 
all  disease  will  be  banished  by  wise  personal,  municipal 
and  federal  hygiene.  A  high  general  life  average, 
through  modern  sanitation,  is  becoming  the  rule  among 
civilized  nations  and  not  the  exception — and  the  time 
will  come,  if  advancement  along  these  lines  continues, 
when  all  will  fill  out  a  normal  life  of  health  and  happi- 
ness. 

Then  death — that  now  hangs  like  a  dreaded  night- 
mare over  every  life — preceded  usually  with  so  much 
pain  and  suffering,  will  be  a  natural  death,  peaceful  and 
serene  as  the  close  of  a  summer's  day. 

Through  atavistic  heredity,  longevity,  like  genius,  oc- 
casionally appears  to  surprise  the  world  with  a  normal 
life  of  125  to  150  years.  In  our  million  ancestors — 
twenty  generations  back — we  need  not  be  surprised  that 
there  appears  in  a  family  anything  from  a  monster,  a 
giant,  a  dwarf,  a  more  than  a  centenarian,  an  imbecile, 
a  genius,  to  an  outlaw  who  sets  a  continent  ablaze  with 
his  criminality. 


24  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

These  do  not  belong  to  their  parents,  but  to  a  remote 
ancestor  of  their  family.  "Like  begets  like,"  is  as  true  in 
man  as  it  is  in  the  vegetable  world.  A  pure  breed  of 
perfect  men  and  women  could  be  approximately  gen- 
erated in  five  centuries  if  we  gave  the  breeding  of 
human  beings  the  same  attention  that  we  do  to  our  bull 
dogs  and  our  race  horses.  More's  Utopia  would  then 
be  realized,  disease  and  criminaltiy  would  disappear  and 
happiness  would  reign  on  the  earth. 

Legislation  is  progressing  in  that  direction.  In  many 
states  they  are  sterilizing  confirmed  criminals  and  if  all 
unfit  subjects  were  unsexed,  we  could  soon  look  forward 
to  a  more  perfect  race. 

Prof.  Irving  Fisher  of  Yale  has  prepared  a  report 
on  National  Vitality  at  the  request  of  the  Government, 
which  he  sends  us,  in  which  he  says  in  summarizing: 
"The  Committee  of  Fifty  found  that  alcohol  and  effective 
work  are  incompatible ;  that  tobacco  interferes  with  one's 
Svind' — in  other  words,  it  affects  the  heart — that  lean 
meat  putrefies  in  the  large  intestine,  producing  'auto- 
intoxication;' that  the  present  working  day  is  too  long, 
producing  over-fatigue,  which  calls  for  stimulants,  that 
lead  to  drunkenness;  that  there  are  500,000  persons  in 
the  United  States  who  have  tuberculosis,  2,000,000  esti- 
mated syphilitics,  both  of  which  diseases  are  preventable. 
A  wise  and  far-sighted  economy  will  lead  the  nation  to 
conserve  its  vital  resources  by  every  possible  method. 
Marriage  alliances  should  be  prevented  among  crim- 
inals, paupers,  feeble-minded  and  those  suffering  from 
transmissible  diseases,  and  confirmed  criminals,  imbe- 
ciles and  rapists,  as  in  Indiana,  Connecticut  and  Michi- 
gan, should  be  unsexed  by  a  surgical  operation — the 
multiplication  of  degenerates  should  thereby  be  made  im- 
possible." 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  25 


With  increase  of  knowledge  and  the  complexities 
of  our  modern  life,  social  and  political,  better  under- 
stood, the  period  of  education  must  constantly  increase. 
This  fact  creates  a  need  for  a  longer  life,  and  the  crea- 
tion of  a  population  containing  a  large  number  of  vigor- 
ous old  men.  "The  old  man,"  as  Metchnikoff  says, 
"will  no  longer  be  subject  to  loss  of  memory,  or  to  in- 
tellectual weakness;  he  will  be  able  to  apply  his  great 
experience  to  the  most  complicated  and  delicate  parts  of 
the  social  life.  It  is  usually  recognized  that  human  life 
is  abnormally  short.  Flourens  maintains  that  a  mammal 
lives  five  times  the  length  of  its  growing  period,  which 
would  mean,  since  the  growing  period  of  man  does  not 
cease  until  about  thirty,  a  normal  human  lifetime  of  150 
years." 

Many  remarkable  cases  of  longevity  are  on  record. 
Drakenburg's  age  of  146  has  been  authenticated,  and 
Mrs.  Wood,  of  Portland,  Oregon,  who  recently  (1910) 
died,  aged  120. 

According  to  Prof.  Fisher,  longevity  was  affected  by 
the  number  of  rooms  occupied  by  tenants  in  large  cities — 
if  one  room,  27  died  to  every  1,000;  if  three  rooms  were 
occupied,  19  only  died  in  every  1,000;  if  five  rooms,  only 
11  died  to  every  1,000.  In  the  rich  quarter  only  13  died 
to  the  1,000;  in  the  poor  quarter,  31  die  to  the  1,000. 

Occupations  have  also  much  to  do  with  longevity. 
The  average  life  of  the  merchant  is  80  years ;  clergy,  70 
years;  lawyers  and  physicians,  66  years;  laborers,  50 
years. 

During  the  18th  century  50,000,000  died  of  small-pox 
in  Europe.  Since  vaccination  by  Jenner  came  into  use 
only  a  few  hundred  die  yearly.  Since  vaccination  has 
been  compulsory  only  7/10  of  1  per  cent  die  with  small- 


26  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

pox.    One  hundred  years  ago  11  out  of  12  died  who  were 
attacked  with  small-pox. 

Since  1793  yellow  fever  killed  100,000  persons  in  the 
United  States.  In  1900  it  was  discovered  that  a  species 
of  mosquito  transmitted  the  disease,  and  by  destroying 
the  mosquito  yellow  fever  has  been  banished  from  the 
country. 

California  leads  the  world  in  sanitation,,  longevity 
and  progressive  legislation.  Like  Aselzion,  in  Marie 
Corelli's  charming  novel,  "The  Life  Everlasting,"  the 
invigorating  climate  of  the  Golden  State  seems  to  be 
endowed  with  the  supernal  power  of  stamping  health 
and  youth  on  the  brow  of  Age,  and  exempting  mankind 
from  the  diseases  of  heredity  acquirement  that  have 
clung  to  the  race  as  a  nemesis,  in  all  the  ages  of  the  past. 

Dr.  Wm.  Osier  recently  (July,  1914)  stated  in  an 
address  in  England  that  90  per  cent  of  humanity  has  a 
taint  of  tuberculosis.  It  seems  possible,  when  we  con- 
sider the  foul  air  of  the  average  bedroom  in  which  we 
are  immured  one-third  of  our  lives.  Millions  are  spent 
annually  to  care  for  the  tuberculosis  victims.  If  people 
were  taught  the  simple  truth  that  pure  air  would  prevent 
pulmonary  consumption,  pure  air  breathed  during  the 
twenty-four  hours  of  the  day,  the  white  plague  would 
soon  be  a  thing  of  the  past.  There  is  an  impression 
abroad  in  the  land  that  night  air  is  poisonous — it  is 
dangerously  poisonous  inside  of  a  house  where  windows 
and  doors  are  closed.  All  physicians  now  know  that 
tuberculosis  is  preventable,  and  nearly  always  curable 
with  pure  air.  The  writer  sent  a  tuberculosis  patient 
who  had  acquired  it  in  an  illy  ventilated  workshop  in 
San  Francisco  to  Arizona,  and  by  living  for  seven 
months  a  tent  life,  breathing  pure  air  night  and  day,  she 
returned  cured. 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  27 

Gluttony  is  a  fair  running  mate  to  its  twin  brother, 
drunkenness  in  the  destruction  of  the  human  race.  A 
conservative  estimate  places  King  Alcohol  as  the  de- 
stroyer of  200,000  lives  in  the  United  States  annually, 
but  the  number  slaughtered  by  unwholesome  food  and 
general  dissipation  is  beyond  mathematical  computation. 

Life  to  a  biologist  has  many  amusing  features.  The 
technique  of  table  manners  is  scrupulously  observed  by 
all  refined  people.  A  man  who  would  eat  with  his  knife 
and  use  a  toothpick  at  the  table  would  be  shunned,  but 
these  same  fastidious  diners,  who  often  show  more 
ignorance  on  weightier  subjects  of  what  to  eat  and  how 
to  eat  than  the  boor  they  deride,  forgetting  they  have 
no  craw  and  gravel  as  a  turkey.  They  swallow  food 
scarcely  masticated,  and  when  by  chance  deglutition  is 
prevented  or  retarded  by  the  size  of  the  food  they  are 
trying  to  force  into  the  stomach,  they  prevent  asphyxia- 
tion by  quickly  and  deftly  throwing  into  their  mouth  a 
glass  of  beer  or  coffee  to  wash  the  food  down,  which, 
while  preventing  a  present  catastrophe,  cannot  obviate 
future  ill  results.  Their  choice  of  wholesome  food  is 
equally  at  fault.  Rich  dressing,  gravies,  pies,  puddings, 
cakes,  pickles,  are  all  indigestible  and  poisonous  to  the 
human  economy,  yet  our  aesthetic  critic,  who  looks  with 
disgust  at  what  he  calls  the  "knife-swallowing"  act  of 
the  ignorant  and  ill-mannered,  inflicts  upon  himself  a 
far  greater  injury  in  the  ingestion  of  these  unsanitary 
and  unwholesome  viands. 

Hygienics  is  the  most  important  study  in  the  college 
curriculum.  Of  what  benefit  is  a  university  education 
if  our  life  is  jeopardized  or  destroyed  or  half  lived  out? 
Health  reformation  can  take  place,  if  we  give  a  thought 
to  the  peril. 

Luigi   Cornaro    (1467-1567),  the  Italian  nobleman, 


28  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

philanthropist  and  scholar,  at  40  was,  as  he  tells  us, 
dissipated,  weak,  with  one  foot  in  the  grave;  but  seeing 
his  folly,  reformed,  quit  wine,  revelry  and  gourman- 
dizing,  became  temperate  and  abstemious,  and  lived  to 
be  100  years  old.  His  charming  autobiography,  which 
should  be  in  every  library,  informs  us  that  robust  health, 
vigor  and  even  virility  returned  to  him,  and  to  the  last 
year  of  his  remarkably  long  life,  he  enjoyed  living  to 
the  utmost,  contributing  to  the  welfare  and  happiness  of 
his  countrymen. 

If  we  studied  as  assiduously  how  to  prolong  life  as 
we  do  how  to  destroy  it,  most  of  us  would  live  to  be 
centenarians.  Pure  food,  pure  air  and  temperate  habits 
will  as  certainly  bring  to  us  a  healthy,  happy  and  long 
life  as  its  opposite  will  produce  disease,  misery  and  early 
death.  From  1890  to  1900  the  average  duration  of  hu- 
man life  has  increased  in  the  United  States  from  31  to 
35  years,  a  gain  of  four  years  in  a  decade,  due  to  stricter 
sanitary  observances. 

Where  population  is  congested  and  bread-getting 
difficult,  vocations  are  decisive  factors  in  longevity.  The 
knife  grinders,  stone  cutters,  colliers,  clerks,  book- 
keepers and  factory  workmen — the  indoor  workers — 
have  not  an  equal  chance  for  long  life  as  the  toilers  in 
the  open  air.  Clergymen,  lawyers,  physicians  and  liter- 
ary men,  because  they  can  keep  themselves  better 
groomed,  and  can  better  regulate  their  surroundings,  are 
longer  lived  than  the  man  who  labors  with  his  hands. 
Religious  people,  interesting  to  observe  from  a  scientific 
and  phschological  standpoint,  all  things  being  equal,  are 
longer  lived  than  the  irreligious,  for  the  deadly  worry 
concerning  the  hereafter  is  in  a  measure  eliminated,  as 
their  religion  inspires  in  their  breasts  a  peace  and  con- 
tentment denied  the  unbeliever. 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  29 


The  Almshouse  is  the  repository  of  long-lived  people, 
because  the  anxiety  incident  to  earning  a  livelihood  trou- 
bles them  no  more,  and  this  great  foe  to  longevity — 
worry — has  been  removed. 

Climate  must  be  classed  as  one  of  the  principal  fac- 
tors in  long  life.  As  man's  habitat  by  nature  is  a  semi- 
tropical  climate,  we  here  find  him  attaining  the  greatest 
age.  In  the  arctic  climate  few  live  longer  than  forty — 
but  as  we  descend  towards  the  tropics  life  lengthens — 
and  when  California  and  Mexico  are  reached,  we  find 
men  living  125  to  150  years  old.  In  cold  Norway  and 
Russia  few  centenarians  are  found,  but  in  warm  Spain 
and  Bulgaria  we  find  them  very  abundant. 

California  especially  has  a  climate  ideal  for  long  life. 
Nature  has  dealt  with  us  with  marked  kindness.  Our 
shores  are  bathed  with  the  warm  Japanese  or  North 
Pacific  current,  1,200  miles  wide,  sweeping  down  our 
coast  from  the  north,  giving  to  us  a  winterless  year  and 
an  eternal  summer.  We  have  convincing  proof  of  the 
superiority  of  our  California  climate  to  all  others,  in 
our  Indians  and  trees — Indians,  which  we  will  substan- 
tiate later,  living  nearly  200  years,  and  the  Redwood 
(Gigantea  Sequoia)  reaching  the  phenomenal  age  of 
8,000  years.  Such  remarkable  longevity  has  not  its  coun- 
terpart in  any  other  country  in  the  world. 

For  centuries  the  civilized  nations  have  had  their  eyes 
turned  toward  this  wonderland.  Our  Golden  State  has 
a  romance  ante-dating  Drake  (1580)  and  even  Cabrillo 
(1540).  Garcia  de  Montalvo,  an  historical  novelist,  con- 
temporaneous with  Columbus,  wrote  in  "SERGAS  DEL 
ESPLANDIOM/'  that  "On  the  right  hand  of  the  Indies, 
there  is  an  island,  called  California,  very  near  to  a  ter- 
restrial paradise,  peopled  solely  by  beautiful  Amazons, 


30  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

whose  costumes  were  wholly  of  gold,  as  there  was  no 
other  metal  in  the  country." 

The  reasons  for  the  California  climate  being-  superior 
to  all  others  are,  its  warmth,  its  equability,  and  its  sea- 
level  position. 

Warmth  is  life — cold  is  death — and  for  this  reason 
we  have  only  23  centenarians  in  frigid  Norway,  while 
we  have  in  warm  Spain  410.  An  unvariable  temperature 
is  another  essential — for  a  changeable  climate,  the  ex- 
tremes of  temperature,  shock  the  system  and  produce  a 
multiplicity  of  diseases  detrimental  to  life. 

All  writers  on  longevity  tell  us  that  a  sea-level  climate 
is  most  favorable  to  long  life — and  have  cited  the  fact 
that  mountainous  Switzerland,  notwithstanding  its  pure 
air,  has  not,  on  account  of  its  altitude,  a  single  cente- 
narian in  all  its  domain. 

The  average  winter  and  summer  climate  of  the  Cali- 
fornia sea  coast  and  valleys  vary  only  a  few  degrees  in 
the  entire  year.  The  average  winter  temperature  of 
San  Francisco  is  51  degrees — the  average  summer  tem- 
prature  59  degrees,  making  San  Francisco  the  finest  sum- 
mer or  winter  resort  of  any  other  city  in  the  world.  The 
lowest  temperature  ever  recorded  here  was  20  degrees 
above  zero.  Snow  has  fallen  but  six  times  in  the  city's 
history,  and  then  remained  on  the  ground  but  a  few 
minutes. 

Flowers  bloom  the  year  round  in  our  door-yards  and 
are  sold  on  the  street  corners  every  day  in  the  year. 
It  is  this  warm,  never  varying  climate  of  our  Pacific 
Coast  that  brings  prosperity,  happiness,  health  and  long 
life  to  our  people.  Men  have  many  peculiar  ideas  re- 
garding health.  Paul  said  the  unbeliever's  philosophy 
was — "Eat,  drink  and  be  merry,  for  tomorrow  we  die." 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  31 

If  translated — eating  wholesome  food  abstemiously, 
drinking  milk  or  water,  and  being  merry  with  the  ex- 
uberance of  health,  it  is  an  admonition  worthy  of  obey- 
ance — but  if  it  is  to  be  interpreted  as  it  generally  is — 
by  gluttony,  drunkenness  and  carousal,  it  should  unques- 
tionably be  ignored. 

"We  die  when  our  time  comes"  is  another  saying 
equally  fatal  if  followed.  Our  time  comes  as  we  will  it. 
If  we  like,  we  can  destroy  our  bodies  in  a  brief  time — 
if  wise,  we  can  conserve  our  lives  to  an  advanced  age. 
Humboldt,  dying  at  90,  working  15  hours  daily,  accom- 
plished four  men's  work.  It  takes  40  years  to  have  a 
matured  intellectuality — and  the  following  50  years  the 
great  German  did  his  most  effective  work. 

The  idea  attributed  to  Osier,  though  he  strenuously 
denies  it,  that  man  becomes  obsolete  at  40  and  should 
be  chloroformed,  is  a  statement  so  utterly  absurd  as  to 
require  no  comment — as  the  greatest  work  of  our  great- 
est minds  has  been  performed  after  40. 

The  betterment  of  human  kind  should  be  the  chief 
object  of  each  individual,  and  if  the  full  length  of  life 
is  lived  the  greater  will  be  the  amount  of  good  accom- 
plished. With  long  life  an  opportunity  would  come  for 
greater  mental  attainments,  as  instanced  in  the  Darwin 
family — where  four  generations,  Galton  says,  in  direct 
line  (Erasmus,  Charles,  George,  Horace  and  Francis) 
show  scientific  ability  of  the  first  rank.  Prof.  Fisher 
says:  "President  Roosevelt  has  pointed  out  that  'race 
suicide'  is  a  sign  of  coming  decay.  Mere  numerical  in- 
crease is  not  the  whole  solution,  however,  there  must 
be  improvement  in  quality  also.  A  race  that  cannot  hold 
its  fiber  strong  and  true,  deserves  to  suffer  extinction 
through  'race  suicide*  as  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that 


32  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

degenerates  have  large  families."    One  child  like  Hum- 
boldt  or  Agassiz  is  worth  a  thousand  dullards. 

When  the  automobile  usurps  the  horse  on  the  streets 
of  our  cities  we  will  find  many  diseases  disappear.  Prof. 
Fisher  in  his  report  on  National  Vitality  says:  "The 
probable  elimination  of  the  horse  from  our  city  life, 
through  automobiles,  will  go  far  to  improve  our  city  at- 
mosphere. The  problem  of  city  air  will  be  half  solved 
when  our  streets  reach  their  proper  state  of  cleanliness. 
The  gradual  elimination  of  the  horse  will  tend  not  only  to 
provide  cleaner  air,  but  also  reduce  the  dangers  from 
flies.  It  is  in  horse  manure  that  the  common  house-fly 
(typhoid  fly)  chiefly  breeds." 

Doctor  Howard  attributes  "the  termination  of  typhoid 
in  certain  districts  of  Washington  to  the  displacement 
of  the  horse  by  the  automobile.  Only  within  a  dozen 
years  has  the  dread  importance  of  insect  carriers  of  dis- 
ease been  realized.  That  mosquitos  carry  malarial 
germs ;  that  flies  are  the  propagators  of  typhoid,  cholera 
and  other  infectious  diseases ;  that  rats  breed  fleas  which 
transmit  to  man  the  dreaded  Asiatic  plague — all  this  is 
of  recent  origin.  There  are  500,000  cases  of  typhoid 
in  the  United  States  annually,  and  some  50,000  deaths. 
There  are  60,000  deaths  annually  from  cholera  infantum. 
Nearly  all  could  be  prevented  if  the  fly  nuisance  were 
abated." 

These  and  kindred  subjects  bearing  directly  on  Na- 
tional, municipal  and  individual  sanitation,  are  of  primal 
importance  in  the  amelioration  of  our  race — and  should 
receive  a  prominent  place  in  every  nation's  legislation. 

A  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body  has  in  all  ages  been 
recognized  therapeutically  and  theoretically,  but  never 
scientifically  put  into  practice  by  a  commonwealth  until 
recently. 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  33 

We  are  at  last  awakened  to  the  fact  that  longevity, 
and  what  it  stands  for,  are  supreme  factors  in  individual 
and  national  life.  Hufeland  has  affirmed  that  "the  dura- 
tion of  man's  life  is  200  years" — but  in  consequence  of 
the  weak  organs  we  inherit  from  our  ancestry,  and  the 
injury  we  do  our  sound  ones  by  our  manner  of  living, 
longevity  of  today  is  a  very  indeterminate  quantity. 

Some  die  of  old  age  at  40 — some  at  60 — and  some 
at  100  and  even  older.  One  man  is  older  at  30  than  an- 
other is  at  60 — age  being  determined  by  the  condition 
of  the  vital  organs. 

The  youngest  old  man  on  record  was  Louis  II,  King 
of  Hungary.  He  was  crowned  when  two  years  old,  suc- 
ceeded to  the  throne  in  his  tenth  year — was  married  in 
his  fifteenth,  and  died,  worn  out  and  grey,  of  old  age — in 
his  twentieth  year. 

The  U.  S.  Census  Reports  tell  us  that  in  1900  there 
were  3,504  persons  in  the  United  States  over  100  years 
old.  Probably  not  one-tenth  of  the  actual  number  was 
recorded. 

In  1850  there  were  11  persons  to  the  100,000  over 
100  years  old— in  1860  there  were  10— in  1870  there 
were  9 — in  1880  there  were  8 — in  1890  there  were  6 
and  in  1900  only  5  centenarians  to  every  100,000  of  in- 
habitants— the  number  growing  fewer  and  fewer  with 
each  succeeding  decade. 

Why  this  gradual  lessening  of  the  number  of  cen- 
tenarians? The  only  reason  that  we  can  logically  ad- 
vance is  that  our  constantly  increasing  wealth  per  capita 
leads  to  all  manner  of  reckless  dissipation,  which  results 
in  shortening  life.  This  also  gives  us  the  solution  of  the 
problem,  why  we  have  more  extremely  old  women  than 
men — because  the  female  is  not  so  prone  to  dissipation 
as  the  male — but  the  general  average  of  life  is  greater. 


34  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

"The  days  of  our  years  are  three  score  and  ten" 
was  the  summing  up  of  human  longevity  3,000  years 
ago  by  King  David  or  Moses  (authorities  disagree  as  to 
the  authorship  of  the  ninetieth  Psalm). 

It  is  more  likely  to  be  David's  prophecy  as  he  sur- 
vived but  a  year  longer  than  this  computation — while 
Moses  lived  one  hundred  and  twenty  years. 

The  ninetieth  Psalm — of  which  this  quotation  is  a 
part — carries  with  it  at  its  conclusion,  a  tinge  of  sad- 
ness, more  in  accord  with  David's  than  Moses*  life. 
David's  numerous  liaisons  doubtless  so  harassed  him 
that  he  became  pessimistic,  and  this  led  him  to  think  that 
70  years  were  long  enough  for  man  to  live. 

Solomon,  in  one  of  his  Proverbs,  advising  for  longev- 
ity, says :  "For  by  me  thy  days  shall  be  multiplied,  and 
the  years  of  thy  life  shall  be  increased" — yet  he  himself 
died  at  the  early  age  of  57. 

Until  eugenics  shall  have  realized  the  hope  of  its 
founder — Sir  Francis  Galton — and  in  the  words  of  a  fol- 
lower— "How  rapidly  the  race  would  advance  if  man- 
kind should  resolve  The  next  generation  must  be  born 
with  healthy  bodies — must  be  nurtured  in  healthy  phys- 
ical and  moral  environments — and  must  be  filled  with 
the  ambition  to  again  give  birth  to  a  still  healthier,  still 
nobler  generation' — until  that  millennium  comes,  we  can- 
not hope  for  a  material  increase  in  the  number  of  cen- 
tenarians." 

If  it  takes  five  generations  of  culture  and  refinement 
to  make  a  gentleman — it  will  take  at  least  five  genera- 
tions of  intelligent  living  with  a  wise  marriage  law  to 
breed  a  race  of  men  who  will  meet  the  requirements 
of  their  normal  longevity,  and  thus  fulfil  the  measure  of 
their  destiny — in  accomplishing  the  greatest  good  to  man- 
kind, along  the  broadest  lines. 


CHAPTER  II. 
Longevity  in  Other  Countries  and  Ages. 

Longevity  in  Bible  Times — St.  Mongah  185  Years  Old — Man's 
Normal  Life  150  Years — Eugenics  Would  Increase — Lon- 
gevity— Lorand  Says  Old  Age  Can  Be  Deferred — Charles 
I  Interviews  Old  Parr — Goat  Herders  of  Bulgaria — 
Numas  de  Cugna  Died  in  1566—300  Years  Old. 

The  question  arises,  Do  we  live  longer  now  than  did 
our  ancestors  in  ancient  times?  In  tracing  longevity 
through  Sacred  and  Profane  History,  we  find  no  well 
authenticated  instance  of  any  human  being  living  200 
years. 

Thompson  tells  us  that  in  Norway  in  1763,  in  the 
District  of  Akerhus,  where  the  food  was  milk,  oatbread, 
cheese  and  salt  fish — but  no  meat,  there  were  120  people 
over  100  and  70  of  these  over  110.  Today,  since  Nor- 
way has  become  a  meat-eating  nation,  there  are  only 
23  centenarians  in  all  Norway.  James  Easton  in  his 
work  on  Longevity  in  England  in  the  16th  and  17th 
centuries  gives  a  list  of  1,712  persons  who  lived  from 
100  to  185  years  of  age.  Among  these  he  mentions : 

Henry  Jenkins  169     Peter  Torton 185 

Thos.  Parr 152     Margaret  Patten   137 

Lywarch  Hen 150     John  Rovin  172 

Countess  Desmond 145     St.  Mongah  185 

Thomas  Damme 154 

If  we  have  fewer  people  today  who  live  a  century 
and  a  half,  may  we  not  attribute  it  to  the  fact  that  two 

35 


36  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

centuries  ago  the  people  led  a  simpler  life — eating  sim- 
pler food? 

Today  we  are  prodigious  meat  eaters  and  use  more 
alcoholic  liquors  and  tobacco — and  indulge  in  every  con- 
ceivable and  inconceivable  form  of  dissipation. 

J.  E.  Worcester  on  Longevity  in  New  Hampshire 
gives  us  a  long  list  of  centenarians  in  that  State — 
ranging  from  100  to  116  years.  He  also  gives  132  per- 
sons in  other  States  ranging  in  age  from  110  to  150 
years — the  latter  being  Flora  Thompson,  a  negress,  who 
died  at  Harba  Island,  Pennsylvania,  a  century  and  a  half 
old,  whose  age  was  verified.  Karl  Pierson  in  "The 
Chances  of  Death"  tells  us  when  dealing  with  old  age 
vitality  in  France,  he  found  ten  people  in  a  million  born 
who  lived  beyond  115  years. 

In  the  U.  S.  Mortality  Statistics  of  1908  the  writer 
says:  "With  better  Hygiene  and  superior  Eugenics, 
and  the  proper  methods  of  living,  the  extreme  limit  of 
life  might  be  more  frequently  attained,  and  that  after 
many  generations,  the  average  of  humanity  might  per- 
haps approximate  to  the  limit  of  110  to  150  years." 

Prof.  John  Glover,  of  the  University  of  Michigan, 
writes:  "It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  normal  age  of  man 
is  somewhere  near  150  years — that  both  mental  and 
physkal  vigor  may  normally  continue  long  after  the  age 
of  100  has  been  passed — that  a  period  which  now  cor- 
responds to  the  weakness  of  senility  and  old  age  should 
not  arrive  under  ideal  conditions,  until  after  the  age  of 
125. 

"In  New  Jersey,  the  U.  S.  Mortality  Statistics  re- 
ports that  Noah  Raby,  previously  referred  to,  "died 
in  Middlesex  County  on  March  1,  1904,  aged  131  years 
and  11  months.  He  was  born  in  Gates  County,  North 
Carolina,  April  1,  1772,  entered  U.  S.  Navy  and  served 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  37 


until  honorably  discharged  in  1809.  He  never  married, 
but  it  is  said  smoked  and  chewed  tobacco  for  122  years." 

The  U.  S.  Mortality  Statistics  in  1900  show  that  of 
all  European  countries,  Bulgaria,  Roumania  and  Servia, 
had  more  centenarians  than  any  other  countries  in  Eu- 
rope— and  that  Belgium,  Germany,  Sweden  and  Swit- 
zerland had  fewer  persons  who  had  reached  the  century 
mark. 

In  the  United  States,  judging  from  the  mortality  of 
centenarians,  twice  the  number  of  centenarians  were 
found  than  even  in  Bulgaria,  the  longest  lived  nation  in 
Europe — and  in  California  we  have  found  a  greater  num- 
ber of  centenarians,  nonogenarians  and  octogenarians 
than  in  any  other  state  or  country  we  have  examined. 

In  the  United  States  Mortality  Statistics  1900-1905 : 

24  males  and  41  females  died  100  years  of  age 

4  males  and     6  females  died  101  years  of  age 
6  males  and     9  females  died  102  years  of  age 

5  males  and  13  females  died   103  years  of  age 

6  males  and     4  females  died  104  years  of  age 

2  males  and   11  females  died  105  years  of  age 

1  male     and     4  females  died  106  years  of  age 

3  males  and     2  females  died  107  years  of  age 

2  males  and  2  females  died  110  years  of  age 
male  and  2  females  died  112  years  of  age 
male  and  1  female     died  115  years  of  age 
male  and  1  female     died  125  years  of  age 
male  and  0  females  died   129  years  of  age 
male  and  0  females  died  131  years  of  age 

Fifty-six  men  and  94  women  lived  to  these  great 
ages — showing  more  women  enjoying  longevity  than  men 
— but  the  maximum  ages  of  129  and  131  reached  by 
men.  The  data  of  those  living  beyond  100  in  the  United 
States  are  not  by  any  means  satisfactory  and  cannot  be 
accurately  secured. 

Metchnikoff  says,  referring  to  the  list  of  men,  who 
in  past  ages  are  said  to  have  lived  beyond  200  years: 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


"Much  more  confidence  can  be  placed  in  some  facts  re- 
lating to  more  modern  times — according  to  which  ex- 
treme old  age  reached  by  man  was  185  years." 

Lorand  tells  us  in  "Old  Age  Deferred"  many  inter- 
esting peculiarities  of  longevity — "Thomas  Parr,  who 
lived  to  nearly  153,  was  accused  of  having  committed 
a  sexual  offense  in  his  102d  year,  for  which  he  was  found 
guilty  and  punished. 

"Drakenburg,  a  Dane  who  was  buried  in  the  Ca- 
thedral of  Arrhus,  Denmark,  lived  146  years,  and  was 
more  often  drunk  than  sober.  Peter  Albrecht,  who  lived 
to  be  123 — married  in  his  85th  year  and  had  seven  chil- 
dren. 

"Gurgen  Douglas,  born  near  Gothenburg,  Sweden, 
who  reached  120  years  and  7  months,  married  in  his 
85th  year  and  had  8  children — one  of  which  was  born 
in  his  103rd  year.  This  child  was  an  idiot — though 
otherwise  well  developed." 

Thomas  Parr's  (1483-1635)  death  in  his  153rd  year 
is  attributed  to  a  change  of  diet.  At  his  country  home 
he  lived  chiefly  on  milk  and  vegetables,  and  labored  un- 
til after  he  was  130  years  old.  In  1635,  the  Earl  of 
Arundel  took  him  to  London  at  the  request  of  Charles  I. 
King  Charles  said  to  him :  "You  have  lived  longer  than 
other  men.  What  have  you  done  more  than  other  men  ?" 
Parr  epigrammatically  replied:  "I  keep  my  head  cool 
by  temperance,  my  feet  warm  by  exercise.  I  rise  early 
— go  to  bed  early — keep  my  eyes  open  and  my  mouth 
shut."  The  rich  food  of  the  royal  household  did  not 
agree  with  Parr,  however,  and  though  1 52  years  of  frugal 
life  were  unable  to  kill  him — nine  months  of  the  King's 
food  'succeeded  in  laying  him  away  in  Westminster  Ab- 
bey. Dr.  Harvey,  discoverer  of  the  circulation  of  the 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  39 

blood,  performed  an  autopsy  and  discovered  no  internal 
marks  of  decay. 

Pritchard  tells  us  of  a  colored  woman  in  North  Caro- 
lina 140  years  and  a  man  125  years  old.  We  have  col- 
lected the  records  of  the  following  persons  who  reached 
and  exceeded  the  age  of  125  years — M.  Flouren's  limit 
of  human  life — and  one  exceeding  Buffon's  limit.  With 
few  exceptions,  they  are  found  in  the  British  Isles,  pos- 
sibly for  the  reason  of  birth  and  death  records  there 
being  better  kept: 

Died.  Age. 

1759    Don  Cameron,  England 130  years 

1766  John  Delasemer  131  years 

George  King 129  years 

1767  John  Taylor  130  years 

1774  Wm.  Beatti   133  years 

1778    John  Watson 130  years 

1780    Robt.  McBride   127  years 

Wm.  Ellis 131  years 

1764     Eliza  Taylor 131  years 

1775  Peter  Garden   131  years 

1764     Eliza  Merchant 133  years 

1772     Mrs.  Keith  133  years 

1767  Francis  Ange    134  years 

1777  John  Brooks 134  years 

1714  Jane  Harrison 133  years 

1759  James  Shellie   136  years 

1768  Catherine  Noonan  136  years 

1771  Margaret  Foster   136  years 

1776  Julius  Miarait  137  years 

1768    J.  McDonough   138  years 

1770    Fairbrother  138  years 

1772  Mrs.  Clum  138  years 

Countess  of  Desmond 140  years 

1778  Swarling  (a  monk) 142  years 

1757  John  Effingham  144  years 

1782  Evan  Williams  145  years 

1766  Thos.  Winsloe   146  years 

1772  J.  C.  Drakenburg 146  years 

1652  Wm.  Mead 148  years 


40  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


Died.  Age. 

1768    Francis  Confi   ISO  years 

1542    Thos.  Newman 152  years 

1656    James  Bowels  152  years 

Henry  West  152  years 

1648    Thomas  Damme 149  years 

1635     Thomas  Parr  152  years 

1797    Jos.  Surrington 160  years 

1668    Wm.  Edwards 168  years 

1670    Henry  Jenkins   169  years 

1780    Louisa  Truxe  (South  America) 175  years 

1820    Solomon  Nibet  143  years 

1822    Lucretia  Stewart  • 130  years 

1839    Wm.  James  (South  Carolina) 132  years 

1846    Thos.  Lightfoot  (Canada) 127  years 

1861     Marion  Moore   131  years 

1869    Lockhart  (Iowa) 127  years 

1878    Eulalia  Perez  (California) 140  years 

Edna  Goodman  (Arkansas) 127  years 

1888  Granny  Rose  (South  Carolina) 131  years 

1889    Wapmark   (Germany) 126  years 

Five  of  these  mentioned  are  found  in  the  United 
States,  and  the  oldest  of  these  is  found  in  California. 

European  Longevity — German  statisticians,  who  re- 
port the  results  of  recent  investigations,  say  that  the 
German  Empire,  with  a  population  of  85,000,000,  has 
but  78  persons  who  are  more  than  100  years  old. 

France,  with  a  population  of  less  than  40,000,000  has 
213  who  have  passed  their  100th  birthday.  England 
has  146,  Scotland  46,  Denmark  2,  Belgium  5,  Sweden 
10,  Norway  23. 

Switzerland  cannot  boast  of  a  single  centenarian, 
but  Spain,  with  about  18,000,000,  has  410.  Servia  has 
573  who  are  more  than  100  years  old,  Roumania  has 
1,084  and  Bulgaria  3,883.  In  other  words,  Bulgaria 
has  a  centenarian  for  every  thousand  of  its  inhabitants, 
and  this  holds  the  European,  if  not  the  world's,  record 
for  old  people.  In  most  of  these  countries,  both  Church 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  41 

and  State  require  exact  records  of  registration  of  births 
— and  the  record  is  indisputable.  On  account  of  this 
thoroughness  in  registration,  not  observed  in  other  coun- 
tries, may  in  a  measure  account  for  the  great  number 
of  centenarians  found  in  Bulgaria. 

Now,  what  is  the  cause  of  so  great  a  difference  in  the 
number  of  centenarians  in  the  several  European  coun- 
tries? The  wine  of  France  produces  more  centenarians 
than  the  beer  of  Germany,  and  the  goats'  milk  and  cheese 
of  the  Bulgarians  produce  ten  times  more  centenarians 
than  the  plum  pudding  and  roast  beef  of  England. 

Striking  instances  of  longevity  in  the  remote  past 
ages  must  be  regarded  with  doubt,  but  since  Sacred  and 
Profane  History  began  we  can  find  no  reliable  record 
of  any  human  being  living  to  the  age  of  200  years. 

Several  writers  of  known  probity,  however,  have 
cited  instances  of  persons  living  to  the  age  of  185 — 
yet  these  are  extremely  rare.  The  trend  of  longeval 
writers  in  all  times  shows  that  centenarians  have  been  in 
evidence  in  every  country  and  period  of  the  world's  his- 
tory, and  where  the  simple  life  is  followed,  a  far  greater 
number  of  long  lived  people  are  found. 

The  history  of  Margaret  Krassowna — a  Polish  wo- 
man who  died  in  1763,  aged  108 — is  related  by  Thomp- 
son, and  presents  some  interesting  phases.  When  94 
she  married  for  her  third  husband  Gaspard  Raykolt, 
who  was  then  105.  His  father  had  previously  died  at 
119.  During  the  fourteen  years  they  lived  together  she, 
it  is  said,  brought  to  him  two  boys  and  a  girl,  and  these 
children  from  their  very  birth  bore  evident  marks  of 
the  extreme  age  of  their  parents,  their  hair  being  grey, 
and  a  vacuity  appearing  in  their  gums,  like  that  which 
is  occasioned  by  loss  of  teeth,  though  they  never  had 
any.  They  had  not  strength  enough,  as  they  grew  up, 


42  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

to  chew  solid  food,  but  lived  on  bread  and  soup.  They 
were  of  proper  size  for  their  age,  but  their  backs  were 
bent,  their  complexions  sallow,  and  they  had  all  the 
marks  of  decrepitude. 

Dr.  Van  Oven,  an  authority  who  has  made  extensive 
research  on  old  age,  has  given  us  seventeen  examples  of 
persons  who  have  undoubtedly  exceeded  150  years. 
Haller  says  the  vital  forces  of  man  are  sufficient  in  some 
instances,  of  reaching  200  years. 

The  inhabitants  of  Southern  Russia  are  noted  for 
their  longevity.  In  the  village  of  Aul  Misar  lives  a 
woman,  Nakulta  Karginova,  aged  139,  and  a  man,  Kaw- 
dyn  Yeloyeff,  142,  who  has  a  son  82.  They  both  are 
temperate  and  the  Church  records  attest  to  their  great 
ages. 

Maffens,  a  Portuguese  author,  tells  us  of  Numas  de 
Cugna,  a  native  of  Bengal,  India,  who  died  in  1566  at 
the  incredible  age  of  300  years.  (In  1913  the  writer 
was  in  Bengal,  India,  and  could  learn  of  no  person  of 
great  age.) 

Sophia  Gab,  a  negress,  died  in  Chicago  in  1904,  aged 
129  years.  Born  a  slave,  she  spent  most  all  her  life  on 
a  plantation  near  Richmond,  Va.  When  freed,  during 
the  Civil  War,  she  was  87  years  old. 

Old  John  Long,  colored,  139  years  old,  was  living 
in  1884,  in  "Happy  Hollow,"  a  negro  suburb  of  Cincin- 
nati, and  was,  according  to  his  sale  papers,  shown  to  the 
writer,  145  years  old,  having  been  born  in  Fairfax 
County,  Virginia,  in  1739.  He  remembered  Light  Horse 
Harry  Lee  of  the  Revolution,  was  sold  to  a  Kentuckian 
in  1790 — later  was  sent  to  Nashville,  Tennessee,  and  saw 
General  Jackson's  army  leaving  for  New  Orleans  in 
1812.  The  writer  knew  him  well — he  was  a  giant  in 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  43 


stature,  lived  on  cornbread,  potatoes  and  bacon,  and  used 
no  tobacco  nor  whiskey. 

The  two  oldest  twins  in  the  world  live  in  Babylon, 
New  York — Samuel  and  William  Muncie,  aged  96  years 
( 1914) .  They  neither  use  tobacco  nor  whiskey.  Hannah 
Koshoff  lives  (1914)  at  the  Daughters  of  Israel's  home, 
32  East  119th  street,  New  York  City,  116  years  old. 
Joseph  Fray,  of  77  East  121st  street,  is  113  years  old. 
Lucy  Fry  celebrated  her  124th  birthday  at  Culpepper, 
Va.,  June  19,  1914.  Jonathan  Wax,  of  Ft.  Scott,  Kan., 
is  103  years  old,  and  the  secret  of  his  long  life  he  tells 
us  is  "to  laugh  and  joke  instead  of  frowning  and  growl- 
ing-" John  Smith,  a  Chippewa  Indian,  living  now 
(1914)  in  Minnesota  near  Minneapolis,  is  128  years  old, 
as  shown  by  Government  records. 

Although  Thomas  Cam,  as  shown  in  the  parish  reg- 
ister of  St.  Leonard's,  Shoreditch,  England,  died  Janu- 
ary 28,  1588,  aged  207  years,  we  would  have  some  doubts 
as  to  its  accuracy,  though  it  is  not  impossible. 

James  Sands,  of  Staffordshire,  is  mentioned  in  Full- 
er's "Book  of  Worthies"  as  having  lived  140  years,  and 
his  wife  120  years.  As  a  very  convincing  proof  of  his 
age,  it  was  stated  in  court  that  he  outlived  five  leases 
of  twenty-one  years  each,  made  by  him  after  his  mar- 
riage. 

Rebecca  Clark  died  July  6,  1914,  in  Woodgreen,  Lon- 
don, 110  years  of  age — the  oldest  British  subject. 

The  writer  received  a  letter  from  Julia  Ward  Howe, 
the  distinguished  authoress,  of  "The  Battle  Hymn  of  the 
Republic;'  May  7,  1910,  in  her  91st  year.  "You  ask 
me  the  secret  of  my  long  life.  It  is  scarcely  by  inheri- 
tance, as  my  parents  died,  mother  at  27,  father  at  53. 
I  acquired  a  habit  of  regular  reading  and  study  which 
enabled  me  to  maintain  what  I  myself  call  a  mental 


44 LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

equilibrium.  I  believe  in  a  Divine  Providence,  but  I  do 
not  try  to  explain  it." 

Miss  Clara  Barton,  America's  most  beloved  Civil 
War  nurse,  on  her  ninetieth  birthday,  writes,  January 
1,  1912,  from  Glen  Echo,  Maryland,  the  secret  of  her 
long  life,  in  these  terse  words:  "Low  fare  and  hard 
work." 

General  Daniel  E.  Sickles,  Major-General  United 
States  Army,  retired,  in  his  88th  year,  sends  a  letter  to 
the  writer,  January  29,  1912,  from  his  home,  23  Fifth 
avenue,  New  York  City,  as  follows:  "My  longevity  to 
which  you  refer,  and  about  which  you  desire  some  in- 
formation, I  attribute  to  a  life  of  temperate  habits.  I 
see  well,  hear  well,  sleep  well  and  enjoy  life.  I  am  capa- 
ble still  of  doing  a  good  day's  work,  which  I  perform 
now,  as  heretofore,  daily.  If  I  am  guilty  of  any  excess, 
it  is  perhaps  in  doing  more  work  than  it  is  provident  to 
do,  but  I  enjoy  my  work,  and  therefore  indulge  myself  in 
that  direction.  So  far  as  I  know,  I  am  the  oldest  living 
man  who  has  survived  so  many  years  an  amputation  of 
one  of  his  legs — my  right  leg.*  I  have  walked  on 
crutches  for  almost  fifty  years.  I  am  inclined  to  think 
that  the  exercise  involved  has  enabled  me  to  preserve 
my  strength  and  vigor.  Instead  of  using  my  shoulders 
as  a  support,  I  have,  by  means  of  a  device  of  my  own, 
so  arranged  my  crutches  that  I  walk  on  my  hands.  This 
gives  me  great  strength  in  my  arms,  and  enables  me  to 
preserve  my  erect  carriage  when  walking,  with  a  large 
expansion  of  my  chest.  /  use  deep  breathing  habitually. 
I  am  my  own  masseur.  I  rub  myself  from  head  to  foot 

*Gen.  Sickles  lost  his  leg  at  the  Battle  of  Gettysburg. 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  4i 

night  and  morning  with  a  rough  towel.     This  exercise 
gives  me  sound  sleep. 

"Sincerely  yours, 

"D.  E.  SICKLES, 
"Major-General,  U.  S.  A.,  Retired." 

William  Martin,  now  ( 1914)  lives  in  Newton  County, 
Arkansas,  and  is  119  years  old.  He  was  born  in  Ten- 
nessee in  1795.  He  is  poor  and  extremely  temperate, 
and  very  religious.  Bridget  Curran  lives  (1914)  at 
South  Bethlehem,  Pa.,  107  years  old.  Her  mother  died 
at  102. 

Terrentia,  the  wife  of  Cicero,  lived  to  be  117  years 
old.  Cicero  secured  a  divorce  from  her  because  he  wanted 
to  marry  a  rich  young  woman.  After  the  divorce  Ter- 
rentia married  Sallust,  the  historian.  He  dying,  she  was 
married  a  third  time  to  Cervinus,  and  yet  again,  a  fourth 
time,  to  Vibius  Rufus. 

Rarely  does  a  spinster  live  to  be  a  centenarian,  but 
we  have  an  exception  in  the  case  of  Maria  Mallet,  a 
French  woman,  who  died  aged  115.  She  continued  the 
business  of  dressmaking  and  millinery  to  her  1 10th  year. 
At  her  death  forty-five  women  who  had  formerly  been 
her  apprentices,  went  before  her  body,  as  pallbearers, 
to  her  tomb. 

Dwarfs  and  hunchbacks — as  though  to  avenge  the 
public  for  their  misfortunes — are  often  exceedingly  long 
lived.  An  instance  is  given  of  Elspeth  Watson,  who 
died,  aged  115.  She  was  two  feet  nine  inches  high, 
and  very  bulky. 

Longevity  does  not  always  confine  itself  to  any  par- 
ticular form  or  size  of  body.  James  McDonald,  a  giant 
seven  feet  six  inches  high,  died  in  1760,  117  years  old, 
and  Charles  Blizzard,  the  fat  man,  died  in  1765,  107 
years  old. 

While  temperance  and  abstemious  habits  mark  most 


46  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

centenarians,  we  are  occasionally  confronted  with  the 
very  opposite — as  in  the  case  of  John  Weeks,  aged  114, 
who  had  a  voracious  appetite,  eating  indiscriminately — 
and  only  a  few  hours  before  his  death  he  ate  three 
pounds  of  pork,  two  pounds  of  bread  and  drank  a  pint 
of  wine.  He  claimed  his  age  was  prolonged  by  marry- 
ing a  lass  of  16  when  he  was  106,  following  the  practice 
of  King  David,  who  took  to  himself  a  Shunammite  vir- 
gin, when  well  stricken  in  years.  A  hot  water  bottle 
possibly  would  have  answered  just  as  well  for  both — 
for  bodily  warmth  is  what  old  people  most  need. 

The  aged  have  many  interesting  stories  told  of  them. 
Thompson  tells  us  of  one  John  Hatfield,  who  died  in 
1770,  aged  105.  One  night  while  on  duty  at  Windsor 
Castle,  he  heard  St.  Paul's  clock,  in  London,  23  miles 
distant,  strike  13  instead  of  12,  and  not  being  relieved 
as  he  expected,  fell  asleep.  The  tardy  relief  soon  ar- 
rived and  found  him  in  this  condition.  He  was  tried 
by  court  martial.  He  denied  the  charge  of  sleeping  at 
his  post  before  midnight  and  in  defense  related  the  story 
of  St.  Paul's  clock,  a  circumstance  never  known  be- 
fore. His  life  was  saved. 

Another  odd  instance  is  related  of  a  young  French 
man  of  21  who  was  sentenced  to  the  galleys  of  Toulon 
for  his  natural  life,  which  means  100  years.  Having 
served  his  term  he  was  released,  aged  122,  and  returned 
to  his  native  village,  but  like  Rip  Van  Winkle,  he  was 
a  stranger  and  became  so  lonesome  he  returned  to  the 
prison  at  Toulon,  where  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his 
days. 

Wm.  August  Gordon  Hake,  the  oldest  barrister  in 
England,  died  at  Brighton  July  31,  1914,  aged  103. 

On  January  12,  1912,  Micayali  Wise,  109  years  old, 
appeared  at  a  newspaper  office  at  Scranton,  Pa.,  and 
made  the  editor  retract  the  statement  that  he  was  dead. 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  47 


Under  the  caption  "To  Live  Long,  Keep  Busy,"  El- 
bert  Hubbard,  a  forcible  and  brilliant  writer,  in  the  San 
Francisco  Examiner  of  January  9,  1912,  gives  examples 
of  modern  longevity:  "Dr.  Robert  Colyer,  ex-Senator 
Davis  and  John  Buckner,  are  each  87  and  still  stirring 
up  the  animals.  Levi  P.  Morton  is  86  and  says  he  doesn't 
want  to  see  another  panic.  The  death  of  John  Bigelow 
in  his  94th  year  closes  the  life  of  an  extraordinary  man. 
Up  to  the  week  of  his  death  he  took  a  hearty  interest 
in  all  political  and  social  happenings.  Herbert  Spencer 
once  said  that  the  majority  of  Englishmen,  who  lived 
to  be  over  70,  have  softening  of  the  brain,  and  then  he 
explains  that  the  reason  they  had  softening  of  the  brain 
was  because  they  did  not  use  their  brain. 

"Litizia  Rothschild,  the  mother  of  the  ten  great 
Rothschilds,  lived  to  be  over  100,  and  at  98  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  express  her  disapprobation  of  some  of  the  policies 
followed  out  in  a  political  way  by  Nathan,  her  brilliant 
son. 

"Caroline  Herschel,  musician,  astronomer,  student, 
school  teacher,  also  made  the  century  run. 

"Bishop  Bowman,  of  England,  is  92,  and  John  Ten- 
niel,  the  famous  cartoonist,  is  90,  and  at  work.  Sir 
Charles  Tupper  is  in  his  91st  year. 

"Alfred  Russell  Wallace  is  in  his  89th  year,  and  not 
long  ago  refused  to  buy  a  horse  that  was  12  years  old, 
stating  that  he  wanted  a  colt  so  he  could  break  it — and 
it  would  last  him  the  rest  of  his  life. 

"Undoubtedly  the  greatest  factor  in  longevity  is  an 
active  interest  in  human  affairs. 

"Life  is  beautiful  and  for  all  we  know  death  is  just 
as  good,  and  death,  science  shows,  is  in  itself  a  form  of 
life." 


CHAPTER  IIL 

Factors  That  Make  for  Longevity  or  How  to  Attain  Long 
Life — Food — Climate-^Temperament — Sea  Level — Relig- 
ion— Amiability — Simple  Life — Sour  Milk — Heredity — 
Every  Man  Can  Fix  His  Longevity. 

Air  is  the  most  important  factor  in  all  animal  eco- 
nomy— without  it,  if  only  for  a  few  moments,  all  life 
will  perish — or  if  out  of  the  normal  proportion,  oxygen 
21  and  nitrogen  79,  life  will  be  shortened.  We  note  the 
effects  of  pure  air  in  length  of  man's  life  in  frigid  and 
tropical  countries.  In  Alaska  the  winters  are  so  severe 
that  men  are  kept  housed  the  greater  part  of  the  year, 
breathing,  of  course,  foul  air,  resulting  in  a  short  life. 
In  tropical  or  semi-tropical  countries  men  live  in  the  open 
the  year  round  and  long  life  results  here  just  as  cer- 
tainly. 

Tropical  climate  or  a  warm  temperate  or  semi-tropical 
climate  such  as  we  have  in  California  is  a  potential  factor 
in  long  life.  Climate,  however,  must  be  supplemented 
with  healthy  ancestry,  wholesome  food,  pure  water  and 
hygenic  observances,  and  then  you  have  ideal  conditions 
for  longevity. 

Climate  has  a  relative  bearing  on  meat  eating.  In 
cold  countries  meat  furnishes  the  carbon  for  the  fuel 
to  provide  animal  heat,  while  this  is  necessary  the  meat 
or  climate  singly  or  conjointly  shortens  life.  Students  of 
longevity,  Huf eland,  the  eminent  Prussian  authority, 
among  the  number,  rightly  contend  that  a  warm  equable 

48 


MRS.  CAROLINE  SEVERANCE,  95— FOUNDER 
OF  THE  WOMEN'S  CLUB  OF  AMERICA 


ELECTA   KENNEDY,   106 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  49 

sea-level  climate,  tempered  by  mountain  breezes,  is  the 
climate  most  favorable  to  long  life.  California  climate 
meets  these  requirements  and  the  strongest  argument 
we  can  advance  to  prove  our  contention  is  that  in  Cali- 
fornia we  have  the  longest  lived  trees,  Sequoia  Gigantea 
8,000  years  old,  and  the  longest  lived  Indians,  Gabriel 
150  and  a  Tejon  180,  and  more  centenarians  among  the 
whites  than  can  be  found  elsewhere. 

Dr.  P.  C.  Remondine,  writing  most  beautifully  and 
forcibly  of  California  climate,  says :  "In  the  bright  sun- 
shine, steady  breezes  from  off  the  wide  ocean,  highly 
electrical  and  ozonized  atmosphere  of  California,  neither 
the  bacillus  of  phthisis,  typhoid  fever  nor  any  other  dis- 
ease germs  can  long  survive  in  the  face  of  these  antago- 
nistic and  ever-present  elements  destructive  to  baccillary 
existence.  The  elsewhere  confident  and  triumphant  ma- 
rauding and  murderous  bacillus  here  finds  its  Waterloo, 
and  the  poor  victim,  a  prey  to  its  ravages  in  reaching 
California  snaps  his  fingers  at  that  evil  spirit  of  modern 
disease. 

"For  he  has  reached  a  sanctuary  which  like  unto  the 
threshold  of  the  ancient  medieval  sanctuaries,  no  pursu- 
ing enemy  might  cross. 

"The  festive  microbe,  the  insinuating  wily  bacillus, 
and  the  ubiquitous  disease  germ  find  in  the  chemical  con- 
stituents of  California  atmosphere  a  limit  to  their  empire 
and  existence. 

"The  great  abundance  of  food  in  all  seasons  where 
man  is  effectually  emancipated  from  the  perpetual  strug- 
gle so  forcibly  noticeable  in  the  East,  that  of  trying  to 
keep  warm  for  one  half  of  the  year  and  in  vainly  en- 
deaving  to  keep  cool  during  the  remainder,  attempts,  at- 
tended with  loss  of  money  and  health. 

"What  the  population  of  California  is  today  should 


60  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


not  be  taken  as  a  criterion  of  what  the  climate  can  ac- 
complish. It  may  take  a  generation  or  more  to  straighten 
out  the  shrunken  livers  in  the  one  or  to  condense  that 
of  another,  and  bring  back  a  demoralized  spleen  to  a 
sense  of  its  backsliding,  after  a  sojourn  in  the  Eden  of 
Indiana  or  Kansas.  It  may  take  a  generation  to  eradi- 
cate the  rheumatic  or  gouty  blood  bred  in  localities  where 
extreme  cold  drives  one  into  gross  feeding  and  illy  ven- 
tilated apartments,  but  in  the  end  California  climate  can 
be  trusted  for  successful  attempts  to  accomplish  the 
economy  so  that  it  will  meander  along  on  a  half  remain- 
ing kidney  or  an  excuse  for  a  relic  of  a  former  lung." 

A  change  to  a  superior  climate  will,  as  we  know,  re- 
juvenate the  old  and  worn  out.  A  case  is  reported  on 
good  authority  of  an  old  Irishwoman  of  eighty,  who  left 
Ireland  and  settled  in  North  Carolina,  a  state  renowned 
for  its  healthfulness,  and  lived  there  until  she  had 
reached  111,  and  being  very  feeble,  was  taken  to  Mur- 
physboro,  Tennessee,  where  she  again  took  on  a  new 
lease  of  life,  and  died  there  in  1835  aged  131. 

Hundreds,  yes  thousands,  of  living  men  and  women 
of  80,  90  and  100  years  of  age  in  California,  who  came 
here  physical  wrecks  from  other  states  and  countries, 
owe  their  rehabilitation  and  long  life  to  the  more  favor- 
able climatic  conditions  they  experienced  on  coming  to 
the  Golden  State.  Climate  has  a  bearing  on  longevity, 
if  favorable  and  a  twelve-month  climate,  as  it  is  here, 
it  is  a  potential  and  unquestioned  factor.  Growth  is  so 
vigorous  and  prolific  that  the  care  and  burden  of  pro- 
viding for  a  household  is  here  reduced  to  a  minimum, 
and  its  concommitant  worry  which  kills  is  not  here  reck- 
oned in  the  category  of  life's  trials. 

East,  they  produce  in  the  summer  the  food  for  the 
winter,  and  emerge  in  the  spring  from  their  hibernation 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  51 


to  follow  the  same  hopeless  routine  again  and  generally 
with  no  cumulative  results.  Here  in  California,  with  its 
wmterless  year,  existence  is  a  "thing  of  beauty  and  a 
joy  forever."  The  seasons  come  and  go,  bringing  an 
endless  harvest,  and  life  is  shorn  of  its  anxieties  and  if 
hygiene  and  dietetics  are  observed  longevity  is  the  rule. 
A  cold,  wet,  changeable  climate  is  productive  of  pneu- 
monia and  consumption,  and  tuberculosis  destroys  four 
hundred  daily  in  the  United  States,  146,000  yearly,  and  is 
easily  preventable  by  pure  air  and  readily  cured  in  its 
incipiency  by  sunshine  and  outdoor  life  in  our  tropical 
California. 

The  invigorating  effects  of  our  climate  on  man  and 
horse  is  charmingly  told  by  Jeremiah  Lynch.  Speak- 
ing of  the  early  Californians  in  "A  Senator  of  the  Fif- 
ties" riding  like  centaurs  on  horses  that  were  more  en- 
during than  the  purest  Arab  they  would  sup  a  hundred 
miles  from  where  they  breakfasted." 

Bayard  Taylor,  visiting  San  Francisco  as  far  back 
as  1860,  says  "the  children  of  California  are  certainly 
a  great  improvement  on  those  born  in  the  East.  No- 
where can  more  rosy  specimens  of  health  and  beauty  be 
found.  Strong  limbed,  red-blooded,  graceful  and  as  full 
of  animal  life  as  young  fawns,  they  bid  fair  to  develop 
into  perfect  types  of  manhood  and  womanhood." 

Wars,  such  as  are  now  (1914)  waging  in  Europe, 
killing  off  the  most  vigorous  of  our  race  and  leaving 
the  weaklings  to  propagate  our  species,  is  our  greatest 
foe  to  longevity,  and  until  universal  peace  reigns  and 
reigns  permanently,  we  cannot  hope  for  improvement 
along  this  line. 

Some  years  ago  Dr.  David  Starr  Jordan,  who  more 
than  any  other  writer  has  written  along  these  lines, 
wrote  a  biological  treatise,  "The  Blood  of  the  Nations," 


62  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

convincingly  setting  forth  with  unanswerable  argument 
that  wars  make  for  race  degeneracy.  Undoubtedly 
through  the  centuries  of  the  past,  if  peace  had  prevailed 
instead  of  war,  125  to  150  years  would  have  been  the 
normal  limit  of  human  life — and  hand  in  hand  with 
longevity,  civilization  would  have  advanced  in  corre- 
sponding ratio. 

The  most  important  factors  that  make  for  long  life 
are  air,  water  and  food.  Air  includes  the  climate,  water 
purity,  and  food  wholesomeness. 

Air  is  generally  pure  outside  of  houses,  only  in  closed 
apartments  does  it  become  dangerous.  Pure  water  we 
can  occasionally  get  but  wholesome  food  is  as  rare  as 
diamonds  and  more  valuable.  Look  into  our  bakery  shop 
windows;  what  a  conglomeration  of  poisons  from  the 
deadly  doughnut  to  the  deadlier  angel  food. 

Cooks  kill  more  than  the  cannon.  War  only  comes 
two  or  three  times  in  a  century  to  devastate,  while  the 
cook  is  ever  with  us — three  times  a  day  and  often  at 
midnight  at  post-theatrical  dinners. 

The  delicatessen  store  is  a  greater  dispenser  of  poison- 
ous foods  than  even  the  bakery.  We  casually  took  an 
inventory  of  one  recently  in  this  city,  and  found  out  of 
thirty  articles  of  food  on  sale  27  were  either  unwhole- 
some, indigestible  or  poisonous,  and  only  three  that 
could  be  classed  as  wholesome.  We  arrest  the  milkman 
if  his  milk  is  diluted  with  water  and  permit  the  delica- 
tessen store  to  impair  the  health  of  a  community  by  the 
promiscuous  selling  of  foods  if  not  directly  poisonous, 
are  indigestible  and  wholly  unfit  for  consumption. 

Indigestion  not  only  shortens  life,  but  produces  an 
unamiable  and  irascible  disposition,  and  the  primary 
cause  of  many  divorces;  and  if  Judge  Graham  of  our 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  53 

city,  the  good  angel  in  pacifying  disgruntled  couples, 
would  turn  his  attention  to  wholesome  cookery  as  a 
requisite  for  each  married  woman,  he  would  find  it  a 
powerful  agent  in  preventing  divorces,  and  in  re-uniting 
belligerent  contestants. 

Is  it  any  wonder  we  are  called  a  nation  of  dyspeptics  ? 

We  license  a  druggist,  after  a  four  years'  course,  to 
compound  medicines,  while  we  allow  any  ignorant  dirty 
fellow  wholly  destitute  of  dietetic  knowledge  to  cook  our 
daily  food  for  us. 

Every  chef  should  be  licensed  after  a  thorough  course 
in  a  wholesome  cookery  school,  under  the  superintend- 
ence of  medical  men,  and  any  man  or  woman  who  enters 
a  kitchen  to  prepare  food  for  people  to  eat,  unlicensed, 
should  be  promptly  arrested.  Every  girl  should  be 
taught  it  in  our  public  and  private  schools,  for  the  prep- 
aration of  healthful  food  is  paramount  to  all  other  studies 
in  the  curriculum.  We  have  cooking  schools,  but  usually 
they  cater  more  to  the  palate  than  to  the  health. 

An  unlicensed  pharmacist  cannot  dispense  paregoric 
without  incurring  a  jail  sentence,  while  any  unclean  male 
or  female  ignoramus  can  deal  out  his  deadly  compounds 
of  indigestible  cookery,  producing  gastritis,  enteritis  and 
ptomaine  poisoning  to  the  unlucky  wight  who  enters 
his  dining  room,  and  not  a  word  of  protest  from  mayor 
or  board  of  health.  Our  pure  food  inspectors  often  are 
as  ignorant  as  the  cooks  as  to  healthful  food.  Instead 
of  a  "political  pull"  these  positions  should  be  earned  by 
hygienic  and  dietetic  knowledge,  and  with  the  aid  of 
scientific  cookery,  health,  happiness  and  longevity  would 
be  promoted. 

For  prevention  of  cholera  in  hogs  $1,000,000  is  spent 
yearly — for  protection  of  babies  who  die  annually  of 


54  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

sheer  neglect  only  $25,000  is  spent.    Hogs  are  more  high- 
ly prized  than  babies. 

Food  has  a  bearing  on  longevity,  though  not  so  much 
as  air  and  climate.  Arnold  Lorand,  one  of  Austria's 
most  distinguished  physicians,  in  his  recent  work,  says 
of  meat  as  a  diet :  "Many  of  the  organs  of  the  body  are 
affected  deleteriously  by  a  meat  diet.  It  aggravates 
'Graves'  disease/  gout,  diabetes  and  injures  the  liver, 
kidneys  and  pancreas.  Children  and  persons  above  70 
especially  should  not  eat  meat.  Fish  is  preferable.  When 
patients  are  taken  off  meat  and  put  on  milk,  eggs  and 
vegetables,  they  improve  soon  and  even  look  younger. 
Old  age  can  be  deferred  by  a  diet  of  milk  and  vegeta- 
bles/' 

Dr.  M.  L.  Holbrook  says,  in  his  work  "Eating  -for 
Strength"'.  After  fifty,  gradually  lessen  the  amount  of 
food  consumed.  Excessive  eating  in  old  age  keeps  up 
too  great  a  pressure  on  the  enfeebled  heart,  and  weak- 
ened vessels  and  renders  them  liable  to  break,  causing 
apoplexy."  The  safest  and  truest  test  of  man's  proper 
food  is  the  work  it  does  in  producing  long  life.  If  little 
or  no  meat  but  milk  and  vegetables,  with  temperate 
habits  and  a  warm,  dry,  semi-tropical  climate  produce 
a  long,  healthy  and  happy  life,  then  the  question  of  man's 
proper  food  and  climate  has  been  successfully  solved. 

Upon  the  other  hand,  where  we  find  people  eating 
large  quantities  of  meat  and  washing  it  down  with  alco- 
holic beverages  and  living  in  a  cold  changeable  climate, 
it  does  not  take  a  Solomon  to  forecaste  for  them  a  short 
and  miserable  life.  Food  is  a  factor  in  longevity  not  to 
be  despised.  Children,  if  not  properly  fed,  fade  away 
and  die,  and  the  adult  must  have  wholesome  food  or  the 
life  is  shortened. 

We  have  said  that  the  meat-eating  Indians  of  the 
North  and  East  live  little  beyond  60,  while  the  nut,  acorn 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  55 


and  maize-eating  Indian  of  tropical  America  lives  from 
100  to  175,  and  in  Northern  Europe,  where  the  climate 
is  severe  and  the  diet  chiefly  meat,  life  is  short,  but  in 
Southern  Europe,  where  outdoor  life  is  a  pleasure,  and 
milk,  eggs  and  vegetables  their  stable  food,  people  live 
to  a  great  age.  For  the  reasons  mentioned,  we  had  only 
23  centenarians,  as  we  have  stated,  in  Norway  in  1910, 
while  in  Spain  we  had  410.  This  disparity  can  only  be 
attributed  to  climate,  the  warm  having  the  preponderance 
of  long  lived  people  over  the  cold  country. 

Metchnikoff,  in  his  work  on  the  Prolongation  of  Life 
says:  "It  has  been  noticed  that  most  centenarians  have 
been  people  who  were  poor  or  in  humble  circumstances, 
and  whose  life  has  been  extremely  simple.  There  is  an 
instance  of  a  rich  centenarian,  as  Sir  Moses  Montefiore, 
who  died  in  Paris  at  the  age  of  101,  but  such  are  ex- 
tremely rare  cases.  Poverty  generally  brings  with  it 
sobriety  and  most  centenarians  have  led  an  extremely 
sober  life." 

Mons  Chemien  tells  us  "that  in  Servia,  Bulgaria  and 
Roumania  there  were  5,545  centenarians  living  there  in 
1896,  and  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  pure  air  of  the 
Balkans  and  pastoral  and  agricultural  life  of  the  natives 
produced  this  great  number  of  old  people. 

While  climate  has  much  to  do  with  longevity,  food  is 
equally  an  important  factor.  No  purer  air  is  found 
anywhere  than  in  the  mountains  of  Switzerland,  yet  it 
is  noted  for  its  absence  of  centenarians.  Food  con- 
sisting of  milk,  fruit  and  vegetables  and  a  mild  sea-level 
climate  seems  to  favor  longevity." 

There  is  an  impression  broadcast  in  the  world,  proba- 
bly for  commercial  purposes,  that  you  must  labor  every 
day  to  enjoy  good  health  and  long  life. 


56  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


It  is  farthest  from  the  fact.  Old  Gabriel,  who  lived 
at  Monterey,  never  did  a  hard  day's  work  in  his  life,  yet 
he  lived  to  be  152  years  old.  All  the  long-lived  Indians, 
now  living  in  Southern  California,  ranging  in  ages  from 
100  to  140,  do  no  work. 

Lazy  people  live  longest,  all  things  being  equal. 

But  some  one  says  in  defense  of  a  meat  diet,  the 
teeth  of  man  proves  him  carnivorous.  The  opposite  is 
true.  The  gorilla  has  identically  the  same  teeth,  yet  he 
is  herbivorous,  and  according  to  his  weight  is  the  most 
powerful  animal  in  the  world.  No  carnivorous  animal 
of  equal  pounds  can  compare  to  him  in  strength.  He 
has  been  known  to  wrench  a  limb  from  a  tree  and  crush 
the  skull  of  a  lion. 

The  tongue  is  further  proof  that  we  are  vegetarians 
— it  being  smooth,  while  the  tongue  of  the  carnivora  is 
armed  with  small  sharp  projections  that  curve  backward. 
The  tiger's  tongue  is  so  rough  it  will  draw  blood  if  you 
allow  him  to  lick  your  hand. 

Dr.  Woods  Hutchinson,  in  his  humorous  way,  tells 
us  "It  has  been  long  known  to  sanitarians  that  the  high- 
est average  of  longevity  is  not  among  farmers  but  among 
professional  and  business  men.  The  finest  physical  speci- 
mens of  humanity  that  are  to  be  found  in  America  are 
not  among  farmers  or  day  laborers,  but  among  the  chil- 
dren of  those  classes  who  have  been  brought  up  in  towns 
or  cities.  Civilized  man  sleeps  in  well-ventilated  bed- 
rooms, the  air  in  the  country  is  always  good,  for  the 
farmer  keeps  all  the  bad  air  shut  up  in  his  bedrooms. 
Their  food  too  often  consists  of  that  which  they  cannot 
sell.  It  takes  them  all  winter  to  recover  from  the  work 
debauch  of  each  summer.  The  city  man,  with  his  well- 
ventilated  house,  good  supply  of  water,  perfect  drainage 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  57 

and  good  food  supply  is  under  more  favorable  condi- 
tions physically." 

The  pure  air  of  an  ideal  climate  must  be  utilized  to 
get  results.  How  pitiable  it  is  as  we  walk  early  in  the 
morning  down  one  of  our  streets  in  San  Francisco  as  the 
ozonized  air  comes  sweeping  down  our  thoroughfare 
from  across  10,000  miles  of  salt  water,  and  deeply  in- 
haling this  intoxicating  elixir  of  life,  to  look  at  the  her- 
metically sealed  windows  of  our  hotels  and  private  resi- 
dences and  think  of  the  contrast  of  the  foul  air  within 
their  bed  chambers  to  the  unadulterated  God-given  air 
without.  Our  churches  and  schools  and  theaters  often 
found  reeking  with  filthy  air  seem  a  shocking  travesty 
on  our  civilization.  We  journey  to  the  country  every 
summer  for  pure  air,  yet  no  purer  air  exists  on  earth 
than  in  San  Francisco,  and  we  can  get  it  free  by  open- 
ing our  windows  and  inhaling  it.  We  seek  each  summer 
Paso  Robles,  Byron  Springs  or  Carlsbad  for  a  vaca- 
tion jaunt,  but  San  Francisco  surpasses  these  and  all 
other  summer  resorts  in  America  or  Europe  for  its  in- 
vigorating air,  its  delightful  sea  breezes  producing  health 
and  a  diversion — a  necessary  concomitant — in  the  mul- 
tiplicity of  its  cosmopolitan  amusements.  We  have  been 
in  the  great  cities  of  Asia,  Africa,  Europe  and  America, 
and  you  can  enjoy  life  more  days  in  the  year  in  San 
Francisco  than  elsewhere. 

Deep  breathing  is  another  factor  that  promotes  lon- 
gevity. It  is  essentially  so,  for  the  oxygen  of  the  air 
burns  up  the  poisonous  and  effete  material  in  our  sys- 
tems and  consequently  the  more  oxygen  we  breathe  the 
more  thoroughly  is  this  renovation  accomplished. 

General  Drayson  in  "Nineteenth  Century"  says: 
"Breathing  will  cure  many  diseases.  The  more  rapidly 
we  breathe  the  greater  amount  of  oxygen  is  taken  into 


58  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


the  system,  and  the  greater  quantity  of  effete  matter  is 
consumed.  Insomnia  and  many  cases  of  pain,  headache 
and  even  toothache,  can  be  realieved  by  breathing  rapid- 
ly for  a  time  and  none  but  pure  air,  day  or  night,  should 
be  inhaled. 

"Nervousness  and  insomnia  can  be  cured  by  breath- 
ing rapidly  for  several  minutes;  even  coughs,  colds  and 
throat  troubles  can  be  in  a  measure  mastered  in  the 
same  way." 

Pure  water  and  pure  milk  are  the  only  two  natural 
and  healthful  drinks ;  all  others  are  artificial  and  mainly 
deleterious.  Water  is  nature's  solvent,  it  washes  out  the 
sewage  of  men  as  well  as  of  cities,  and  to  both  it  is 
equally  important.  It  should  never  be  drunk  with  meals, 
always  before  or  after.  In  the  morning  a  glass  of  water 
drunk  with  a  small  quantity  of  salt  will  both  wash  out 
the  stomach  and  disinfect  it  and  prepare  it  for  the  recep- 
tion of  food.  Several  glasses  of  water  drunk  daily  will 
cure  constipation  and  constipation  is  a  foe  to  health  and 
longevity.  Ice  water  should  never  be  drunk;  it  chills 
the  stomach  and  heart  and  always  does  injury,  oftentimes 
a  fatal  one. 

Adelaide  Neilson,  England's  most  beautiful  and  most 
renowned  actress,  was  in  her  prime  killed  by  a  glass  of 
iced  milk  in  1880  in  a  Parisian  cafe.  Pure  milk  is  both 
the  most  perfect  drink  and  the  most  perfect  food.  Pure 
milk  can  only  be  obtained  from  healthy  kine.  It  is  said 
that  one-fourth  of  our  dairy  cows  have  tuberculosis,  and 
it  is  the  imperative  duty  of  our  milk  inspectors  to  care- 
fully and  diligently  safeguard  this  important  avenue  of 
food  supply.  Goafs  milk  is  preferable  to  cow's  milk 
for  the  reason  that  the  goat  is  immune  from  tuberculosis 
and  kindred  cattle  diseases.  It  is  undoubtedly  a  better 
infantile  food.  We  have  often  found  in  our  practice 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  59 

children  dying  from  inanition,  from  not  being  able  to 
digest  the  mother's  or  cow's  milk — or  any  of  the  artificial 
foods — but  would  readily  and  rapidly  recuperate  if  goat's 
milk  were  used. 

Sour  milk  or  buttermilk  has  a  well-earned  reputation 
in  overcoming  intestinal  putrefaction  and  destroying  the 
baccilli  of  old  age. 

London  M.  Douglas,  F.  R.  S.  E.,  in  his  interesting 
and  instructive  volume  "Bacilus  of  Long  Life''  tells 
of  Eastern,  Southern  Europe,  out  of  its  population  of 
three  million  were  found  3,000  centenarians.  The  secret 
of  this  long  life  was  soured  milk,  on  which  these  people 
so  largely  subsist.  Dr.  Douglas  states :  "It  is  quite  com- 
mon to  find  among  the  peasants  who  live  to  such  a  large 
extent  upon  soured  milk,  individuals  ranging  from  110 
to  120  years  of  age." 

Poverty  and  its  accompaniment  anemia,  often  the 
result  of  the  alcohol  habit,  shortens  life.  John  Shedd, 
the  Chicago  millionaire,  who  rose  from  poverty,  recent- 
ly said :  "There  would  be  no  need  of  old  age  pensions 
if  workingmen  would  save  their  money  instead  of  spend- 
ing it  for  whiskey  and  beer." 

Can  we  doubt  it  when  we  find  in  the  fiscal  year  end- 
ing June,  1913,  the  people  of  the  United  States  spent 
$2,000,000,000  (two  billion  dollars)  for  intoxicating 
drinks,  and  $350,000,000  (350  million  dollars)  for  to- 
bacco, both  deadly  poisons. 

There  are  300,000  insane  in  the  United  States,  and 
costing  us  $110,000,000  annually,  and  one-third  of  them 
(100,000)  are  made  insane  through  alcohol.  In  China 
the  use  of  opium  is  prohibited  by  the  State;  in  France 
absinthe  because  both  is  known  to  be  detrimental  to  the 
physical  health  of  its  people.  So  in  the  United  States 
alcohol — high  spirits,  brandy  and  whiskey — should  be 


60  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


legally  barred  except  for  medicinal  purposes,  being 
poisons,  and  their  use  as  a  beverage  a  menace  to  the 
nation,  but  pure  beer  and  wine  should  be  classed  with 
other  foods,  being  non-injurious,  if  used  temperately. 

Alcoholic  liquors,  as  we  have  hitherto  computed,  di- 
recently  and  indirectly  destroy  200,000  annually  in  the 
United  States  and  cannot  therefore  be  said  to  promote 
longevity. 

The  United  States  Mortality  Statistics  on  Alcoholism 
have  little  or  no  value  however,  as  death  from  alcoholism 
is  considered  a  disgrace  and  not  one  case  in  a  hundred  is 
reported  correctly  by  the  attending  physician. 

In  1908  the  United  States  Mortality  Statistics  gave 
only  2,348  deaths  from  alcohol  and  5,280  from  appendi- 
citis, as  a  total  that  year  for  the  United  States. 

Every  intelligent  medical  man  knows  that  we  have 
that  many  deaths  from  alcoholism  and  more  in  each 
State.  Appendicitis  kills  nearly  three  times  as  many  peo- 
ple in  the  United  States  annually  as  alcohol,  according 
to  these  statistics,  which  is  erroneous  and  misleading. 

Phelps,  in  his  "Mortality  of  Alcohol,"  places  60,000 
as  the  death  list  in  the  United  States,  which  we  think 
is  undoubtedly  much  under-estimated.  Niesson  exam- 
ined 6,111  persons  from  16  to  90  years  of  age  who  were 
taking  alcohol  and  found  the  ratio  of  mortality  among 
them  three  times  greater  than  for  the  whole  population 
of  England. 

Lorand  tells  that  Sir  Iseanbaro  Owen,  after  an  in- 
vestigation of  4,287  persons,  that  he  found  the  average 
duration  of  life  was  greatest  among  the  total  abstainers, 
or  very  moderate  drinkers,  and  that  but  few  addicted  to 
much  alcohol  were  among  the  long  lived,  which  proves 
conclusively  that  alcohol  is  very  deleterious  to  the  or- 
ganism. 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  61 

Mechnikoff  says:  "Humanity  would  make  great 
strides  toward  longevity  could  it  put  an  end  to  syphilis, 
which  is  the  cause  of  one-fifth  the  cases  of  arterio 
sclerosis. 

"The  suppression  of  alcoholism,  the  second  great 
factor  in  the  degeneration  of  the  arteries,  will  produce  a 
still  more  marked  increase  in  the  length  of  life." 

Dr.  Henry  Smith  Williams  says:  "Tea,  coffee  and 
alcohol  should  be  absolutely  interdicted  in  the  growing 
child." 

The  superintendent  of  one  of  our  largest  insane 
asylums  tells  us  that  75  per  cent  of  the  inmates  were 
alcoholics  and  regarding  longevity  were  very  short  lived. 

A  prominent  police  court  judge  of  this  city,  speaking 
to  us  along  the  same  lines,  says :  "//  there  were  no  al- 
coholics, crime  would  be  diminished  one-half.'' 

It  is  a  well-known  fact  to  all  physicians  that  alco- 
holics succumb  more  readily  to  pneumonia  and  erysipelas, 
and  that  they  beget  neurotic  and  short  lived  children. 
Alcoholics  propagate  drunkards,  insane  and  criminals 
and  should  be  prohibited  by  law  from  marriage. 

Dr.  Archibald  tells  us  in  his  book  on  alcohol  "that 
the  use  of  alcohol  tends  to  make  a  sober  nation  by  the 
elimination  of  the  drunkard  by  killing  him  off,  and  the 
survival  of  the  fittest  transmit  their  moderate  tendencies 
to  their  children. 

"Alcohol  is  rightly  regarded  as  terribly  injurious  to 
the  individual  and  it  is  a  comfort  to  believe  that  it  makes 
for  the  improvement  of  the  race  as  a  whole." 

Doctor  David  Starr  Jordan,  of  Stanford  University, 
advances  the  same  theory  and,  though  seemingly  harsh, 
it  is  undoubtedly  the  correct  one.  Col.  L.  M.  Maus, 
U.  S.  A.  Surgeon,  says:  "Alcohol  lessens  the  ability 


62  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

and  resistance  of  army  men  in  every  line,  and  should  be 
abolished  as  medicine  or  regalement  from  the  army  and 
navy." 

The  Spartans,  Lycurgus  tells  us,  practiced  very  much 
the  same  theory  in  their  treatment  of  their  newly  born 
infants  by  immersing  them  in  cold  water,  thereby  sifting 
out  and  destroying  the  feeble.  Alcohol,  the  greatest  de- 
stroyer of  the  human  race  known  to  the  world,  more  than 
war,  besides  decimating  our  kind,  is  in  addition  an  ex- 
pensive habit — to  the  individual  and  nation. 

The  U.  S.  Statistics  tell  us  that  the  liquor  bill  of 
our  people  is  $3,000,000,000  (3  billion  of  dollars)  an- 
nually. This  we  cannot  doubt  when  we  learn  that  70 
million  gallons  of  spirituous  liquors  are  drunk  yearly 
in  the  United  States.  Webb's  Statistics  for  1911.) 

While  we  have  known  a  few  who  drank  to  excess, 
who  were  long  lived,  they  would  unquestionably  have 
lived  longer  had  they  been  temperate.  Metchnikoff  re- 
marks that  sobriety  is  certainly  favorable  to  long  life, 
but  we  have  a  few  instances  of  centenarians  who  have 
drank  freely. 

M.  Chemin  gives  instances  of  a  few  long  lived  drunk- 
ards— one  Dr.  Politiman,  a  celebrated  French  surgeon, 
who  lived  from  1685  to  1825,  140  years,  was  in  the  habit 
from  his  25th  year  onward  of  getting  drunk  every  night, 
after  having  attended  to  his  practice  all  day.  The  drink 
was  not  whiskey,  but  wine,  which  has  no  ill  effect;  in 
fact,  the  tart  wine,  as  claret,  acts  favorably  on  the  liver 
and  used  temperately  would  promote  longevity. 

Gascoyne,  a  butcher  of  Trie,  died  in  1767  at  the  age 
of  120,  and  got  drunk  regularly  twice  a  week  (probably 
on  winej. 

Another  example  he  relates  of  the  wealthy  Irish 
landlord  Brawn,  who  died  at  120,  and  had  a  statement 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  63 


inscribed  on  his  tomb  giving  his  reasons  for  living  so 
long :  "I  have  been  drunk  all  of  my  life  and  in  that  con- 
dition was  so  terrible  that  even  Death  was  afraid  of  me." 

But  these  are  the  exceptions.  Fully  95  per  cent  of 
centenarians  have  lived  sober,  temperate  and  abstemious 
lives,  living  chiefly  on  milk,  eggs,  cheese,  fruits  and  vege- 
tables, as  Thos.  Parr,  152  years,  and  Pierre  Zortay,  liv- 
ing to  within  15  years  of  200. 

"In  Human  Body  and  Health"  "the  use  of  beer/' 
Dawson  tells  us,  "is  the  chief  cause  of  fatty  degenera- 
tion of  the  heart,  and  one  in  sixteen  patients  in  the 
Munich,  Germany,  hospital,  in  which  city  beer  drinking 
is  common,  die  from  enlargement  of  the  heart  due  to 
beer  drinking." 

Millions  are  spent  annually  in  our  several  states  for 
sanitary  purposes,  but  the  one  chief  thing  they  neglect 
is  to  educate  the  community  on  ventilation  of  houses, 
avoidance  of  indigestible  food,  gluttony  and  drinking  al- 
coholic liquors.  Dietetics  has  become  an  exact  science 
since  the  U.  S.  has  established  its  Pure  Food  Bureau, 
and  we  can  intelligently  select  food  that  will  prolong 
life.  We  have  learned  that  too  much  meat  (a  food  too 
often  diseased),  pie,  cakes,  puddings,  accompanied  by 
alcoholic  liquors  neither  promote  health  nor  longevity. 
Food,  to  accomplish  the  best  results  in  nourishing  the 
body  without  clogging  it  must  be  thoroughly  digested. 

Mastication  is  most  important  as  the  first  step  in  di- 
gestion, and  being  voluntary,  is  under  our  control.  Thor- 
ough mastication  of  food,  a  subject  very  carefully 
treated  by  Horace  Fletcher  in  "The  A,  B,  Z  of  our  Nu- 
trition," i.  e.,  chewed  continually  till  it  becomes  a  liquid 
pulp,  is  advised,  and  then  when  in  jested,  there  will  be 
little  danger  of  auto-infection  when  it  reaches  the  in- 
testinal tract.  The  bacteria  from  a  meat  diet  is  more 


64  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


dangerous  than  from  a  vegetable  diet — the  aged  being 
much  more  liable  to  intestinal  putrefaction  than  the  young 
because  of  their  weak  digestion,  and  hence  meat  should 
be  discarded  by  the  old. 

The  Pure  Food  Bureau  has  established  the  fact  that 
too  exclusive  a  diet  of  corn  produces  pellagra  and  that 
excessive  use  of  beer  produces  Bright's  disease.  Foods 
containing  a  high  percentage  of  protein,  as  lean  meat, 
was  once  thought  a  necessary  diet  for  the  working  man, 
but  it  has  been  proven  that  food  such  as  rice  that  con- 
tain a  low  percentage  of  protein  is  more  strength-giving 
and  fatigue-resisting,  and  men  who  subsist  on  rice,  beans 
and  other  kindred  foods  possess  far  greater  powers  of 
endurance.  The  Russo-Japanese  war  verifies  this  state- 
ment. 

For  the  aged  whose  digestive  glands  are  atrophied, 
raw  milk,  whipped  eggs,  rice,  sago,  tapioca,  barley  and 
soft  boiled  eggs  are  the  most  digestible  foods. 

The  key-note  in  eating  is  moderation  in  all  periods  of 
life. 

The  Record  of  Harvard  University  State. 

"For  fifty  years  not  one  tobacco  user  has  stood  at  the 
head  of  his  class,  although  83  per  cent  of  Harvard  stu- 
dents use  the  weed." 

In  1913,  14,530,486,200  (more  than  fourteen  billions) 
cigarettes  were  smoked  in  the  United  States,  producing 
an  incomputable  brain  and  heart  injury  to  the  nation. 
Former  Servant  of  Great  Irish  Liberator  Passes  Away. 

Potsdam,  N.  Y.,  Jan.  17. — Mrs.  Nora  Sullivan  died 
here  yesterday,  aged  110.  She  was  born  in  County 
Kerry,  Ireland,  and  was  employed  in  the  household  of 
Daniel  O'Connell,  the  Irish  liberator,  before  coming  to 
America  seventy-five  years  ago. 

She  had  used  tobacco  for  the  last  eighty  years. 


HEY  LAWSON  HILL,  105 


BRUNO,   110  YEARS   OLD 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  65 


TANNER  AT  85,  SAYS  'EAT  NUTS  AND  FRUIT. 

Los  Angeles,  February  7. — Eighty-five  years  old  to- 
day, Dr.  Henry  S.  Tanner,  who  had  earned  world-wide 
fame  by  equaling  the  exploit  of  Elijah  in  fasting  forty 
days  and  forty  nights,  declares  that  simple  living  on  nuts 
and  fruits  is  the  only  solution  of  the  high  cost  of  living. 

Tobacco  is  another  poison  that  men  use,  and  though 
not  so  destructive  to  the  human  family  as  alcohol,  yet  it 
is  not  by  any  means  conducive  to  long  life.  In  the 
United  States  4  billion  cigars  and  16  billion  cigarettes 
are  smoked  annually,  costing  200  million  dollars  more 
than  for  bread. 

Riddell  tells  us  in  his  work  "Heredity"  that  60,000 
persons  die  annually  in  the  United  States  from  diseases 
caused  directly  by  the  use  of  tobacco.  Cigarettes  have 
a  stunting  effect  on  the  growing  youth.  In  nicotine 
poisoning  too,  we  have  exceptions  for  some  men  seem 
to  use  tobacco  with  impunity.  Mr.  Ross,  who  gained 
a  prize  for  longevity  in  1896  at  the  age  of  102,  was  an 
inveterate  smoker  and  in  1897  a  widow  named  Lauzenne 
died  at  La  Carriere,  aged  104,  and  smoked  a  pipe  all 
her  life. 

The  question  presents  itself,  if  these  people  lived  to 
such  a  great  age  handicapped  by  nicotine  poisoning, 
would  they  not  have  lived  many  years  longer  had  they 
not  been  subject  to  this  virulence? 

Tea  is  an  astringent  and  the  tannin  it  contains  induces 
constipation  and  its  sequel,  nervousness,  which  later 
is  directly  attributable  to  auto-infection  from  the  reten- 
tion of  the  feces,  besides  giving  a  tanned  or  leathery 
appearence  to  the  skin  of  the  habitual  user. 

Coffee  is  not  so  pernicious,  even  some  medical  writers 
claiming  it  is  a  promoter  of  intellect,  reason  and  imag- 


66  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

ination — though  it  is  patent  to  most  physicans  that  an 
excessive  use  of  it  oftentimes  produces  functional  heart 
trouble.  M.  Chemin  tells  us  of  Elizabeth  Durieux,  a 
native  of  Savoy,  who  lived  to  114,  her  chief  food  coffee, 
drinking  as  much  as  40  small  cups  daily.  Metchnikoff 
concludes,  after  an  exhaustive  study,  "that  duration  of 
life  may  be  prolonged  by  a  measure  directed  against 
intestinal  putrefaction.  The  process  of  putrefaction  takes 
place  in  a  mass  of  badly  digested  food  and  may  be  com- 
bated by  careful  dieting  and  avoidance  of  rich  food  of  all 
kinds  particularly  of  flesh  and  alcohol.  A  diet  consist- 
ing largely  of  sour  milk  is  most  conducive  of  longev- 
ity. In  the  rural  districts  of  Ireland  the  use  of  sour  milk 
is  common  and  centenarians  are  abundant." 

Chemin  tells  us  of  "26  centenarians  who  lived  a  fru- 
gal life  and  never  drank  wine  or  ate  meat  but  who  lived 
on  bread,  milk  and  vegetables. 

"Marie  Pryon  died  in  France  in  1838,  158  years  of 
age,  who  lived  the  last  ten  years  of  her  life  exclusively 
on  cheese  and  goat's  milk.  Ambroise  Janette  died  in 
1751,  aged  111  years,  ate  nothing  but  unleavened  bread 
and  drank  nothing  but  skimmed  milk.  Nicolai  Marc, 
died  110  years  of  age,  lived  only  on  bread  and  milk. 
There  lives— 1890— in  the  village  of  Sba,  Theresa  Abalsa, 
whose  age  is  180.  She  is  quite  active  and  walks,  and  her 
chief  diet  is  barley  bread  and  buttermilk."  Metchnikoff 
relates  visiting  in  1905  Madame  Robinson,  a  Parisian 
woman  of  105,  and  she  told  him  that  her  relatives  died 
young  and  that  her  great  age  had  been  acquired  by  lead- 
ing an  extremely  regular  life.  She  seldom  took  meat, 
but  her  diet  chiefly  consisted  of  eggs,  fish,  farinaceous 
foods,  vegetables  and  fruit. 

On  November  11,  1911,  two  brothers  who  had  been 
sent  out  by  Harvard  University  to  walk  from  Boston  to 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  67 

San  Francisco  to  test  the  relative  value  of  a  meat  and 
vegetable  diet,  arrived  in  Denver.  After  the  2,000  mile 
walk  the  meat  abstainer  had  gained  15  pounds  and  was  in 
much  better  condition  of  the  two. 

Professor  Irving  Fisher,  of  Yale  University,  Govern- 
ment Expert  on  Food  Values,  recently  sent  us  literature 
on  this  subject.  From  experiments  he  conducted  among 
the  students,  dividing  them  as  meat  eaters  and  meat  ab- 
stainers, (the  latter  allowed  milk  and  eggs)  he  found 
that  they  were  equal  in  feats  of  strength  but  in  endur- 
ance the  meat  abstainers  out-did  the  meat  eaters  two  to 
one.  Mankind  is  often  provokingly  perverse  regarding 
his  own  welfare. 

We  think  more  or  our  horse  and  feed  him  with  more 
judgment  and  sense  than  we  do  ourselves.  Suppose  we 
had  fed  Flying  Childers,  Salvator  or  Nancy  Hanks  with 
as  little  care  as  we  feed  ourselves,  would  they  have  made 
historic  names  ?  In  1910  the  writer  saw  Dan  Patch,  the 
world  famous  pacer,  1.56.  He  was  carefully  bathed  and 
groomed  daily  till  his  skin  shone  like  satin.  No  human 
being  was  ever  so  well  cared  for.  A  screen  was  about 
his  stall,  preventing  the  flies  from  annoying  him  or  carry- 
ing infection  to  his  food,  was  fed  with  a  measure  of  the 
choicest  oats  and  hay  weighed  to  the  ounce;  and  pure 
water  at  stated  intervals,  and  with  his  breeding  care  and 
training,  he  was  king  among  horses  and  champions  of 
the  world.  Had  we  bred  these  horses  as  carelessly  as 
we  breed  men,  their  names  and  deeds  would  never  have 
been  worthy  enough  for  record. 

Among  men  it  is  only  fortunate  haphazard  alliance 
that  by  chance  occurs,  not  by  any  premeditation  or  care 
upon  our  part,  that  a  few  intellectual  men  and  women 
are  occasionally  bred,  whereas  if  the  same  care  were  used 
in  breeding  men  as  in  the  propagation  of  our  domestic 


68  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

animals,  geniuses  would  be  the  rule  and  not  the  exception. 
Eugenics  should  be  formulated  into  legal  enactments 
of  the  state  and  made  as  other  laws,  compulsory  require- 
ments. Then  would  we  no  longer  need  almshouses,  for 
all  could  take  care  of  themselves — nor  penitentiaries,  for 
there  would  be  no  criminals  nor  perverts, — nor  hospitals, 
for  none  would  be  sick. 

It  is  pitiful  to  look  at  mankind  as  it  exists — diseased 
by  the  indigestible  food  it  consumes;  nerves  disordered 
by  nicotine  poisoning,  heart  fluttering,  brain  reeling  with 
alcohol — and  the  lame,  the  halt  and  the  blind,  the  drunk- 
ard, the  glutton,  the  criminal,  the  deformed-incongruously 
marrying  and  breeding  their  kind. 

There  are  (1915)  20  million  school  children  in  the 
United  States — and  according  to  statistics  (1912) — 15 
millions  of  them  are  physically  defective.  Fresh  air, 
proper  feeding,  proper  mating,  temperate  exercise  of 
body  and  mind,  with  grooming  and  physical  care,  would 
lead  to  a  healthier  future  generation — that  would  tend  to 
long  life. 

Healthful   food   receives   only  minor  consideration. 

A  San  Francisco  paper  recently  gives  this  menu 
offered  by  300  society  women  of  the  city  at  a  Charity 
Ball.  "Ices,  Salads,  Cakes."  "EVERY  ARTICLE  UN- 
WHOLESOME AND  INDIGESTIBLE." 

In  the  United  States  as  elsewhere,  the  death  rate  is 
shown  to  be  twice  as  high  among  the  unmarried  as 
among  the  married  of  the  same  age.  A  single  life  is 
usually  a  discontented  and  unsettled  life.  Marriage 
by  selection  of  the  fittest  is  a  logical  factor  also  in  longev- 
ity. Some  writer  says  a  woman  possessing  beauty, 
health,  character,  amiability  and  a  cultivated  mind  is 
more  apt  to  marry  and  thereby  bear  children  than  a 
woman  of  less  favored  qualities;  so  such  a  woman  will 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  69 

select  a  prepossessing  robust  attractive  and  virile  man, 
rather  than  a  weakling  and  the  alliance  gives  to  us  healthy 
vigorous  children,  born  with  the  inherent  qualities  of  long 
life. 

Long  life  shows  great  virility,  and  we  know  of  no  in- 
stance of  great  age  where  amative  passion  did  not  strongly 
exist.  People  of  an  amorous  nature  usually  marry  and 
the  trio — passion,  marriage  and  longevity — usually  go 
hand  in  hand.  There  is  hardly  an  instance  recorded  of 
a  bachelor  or  spinster  reaching  the  age  of  100.  Dr. 
Curadze,  a  statistical  expert  of  Berlin,  says:  "If  men 
want  to  enjoy  long  life,  they  should  marry;  if  women 
want  to  grow  to  a  good  old  age,  they  should  remain  spin- 
sters." 

Capt.  Diamond,  of  San  Francisco,  is  an  exception. 
He  is  a  bachelor  and  118  years  old,  and  Marie  Mallet, 
a  French  spinster,  whom  we  have  previously  mentioned, 
who  in  the  last  century  in  Paris  died  at  the  age  of  115 
— but  these  are  noteworthy  exceptions.  Margaret  Mc- 
Dowal  of  Scotland  probably  distances  the  female  record 
in  marrying.  She  died  in  1768,  aged  106,  and  was  mar- 
ried 13  times  and  outlived  all  her  husbands. 

James  Gay,  of  Bordeaux,  France,  died  in  1772  at 
the  age  of  101,  was  married  16  times  and  died  childless. 

Marriages  should  be  regulated  by  the  State  for  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  commonwealth  to  safeguard  its  citizens. 
Proper  marriage  would  insure  a  healthy  longevity — a 
capable,  law-abiding,  enterprising  and  superior  people. 

We  guard  the  State  against  diseased  and  immoral 
immigrants  yet  with  our  lax  marital  laws  we  breed  crim- 
inals by  the  tens  of  thousands  yearly.  Take  the  two 
families  the  Jukes  and  the  tribe  of  Ishmael ;  from  the  one 
man  who  founded  the  Juke  family  came  1,200  descend- 
ants in  75  years.  Of  these  310  were  professional  paupers 


70  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

who  spent  2,300  years  in  poor-houses,  50  were  prosti- 
tutes, 7  murderers,  60  thieves  and  130  common  criminals. 
The  tribe  of  Ishmael  numbered  1,692  individuals — in  six 
generations  producing  121  known  prostitutes  and  hun- 
dreds of  thieves.  Yet  the  uninformed  think  there  is 
nothing  in  heredity.  Ada  Take,  born  in  1741,  was  a 
drunkard.  She  had  709  descendants  among  whom  were 
100  illegitimates,  189  prostitutes,  142  beggars,  46  in  the 
workhouse,  76  criminals  and  the  remainder  more  or  less 
drunkards.  They  cost  the  State  $1,200,000.  This  social 
degradation  could  have  been  prevented  if  the  State  had 
prohibited  the  marriages  and  had  sterilized  the  heads  of 
these  families. 

Contrast  the  Edwards  family  with  the  Juke  and 
Ishmael  families.  Of  the  1,900  descendants  of  Jona- 
than Edwards,  1,394  have  been  identified.  295  were  col- 
lege graduates,  13  were  college  presidents,  65  were  col- 
lege professors,  60  were  physicians,  100  were  clergymen 
of  distinction,  75  were  officers  in  army  and  navy,  60  were 
prominent  authors,  100  were  lawyers,  30  were  judges, 
80  held  public  offices,  3  were  United  States  Senators,  1 
was  vice-president  of  the  United  States  and  we  have  an 
unanswerable  argument  in  favor  of  heredity  and  eugenics. 

To  realize  the  Utopia  of  our  dream,  a  marriage  law  is 
imperative.  Marriage  should  only  be  permitted  by  law 
to  take  place  between  a  man  and  woman  mentally,  mor- 
ally, financially  and  physically  sound.  The  ^  offspring 
from  such  a  union  would  be  endowed  with  a  vitality  and 
poise  that  would  give  them  a  vantage  in  the  battle  of  life. 
Marriage  promotes  longevity  for  the  simple  reason  that 
it  compels  us  to  live  a  more  regular  life  and  for  this 
reason  the  married  live  longer  than  the  single.  In 
France,  out  of  1,000  unmarried  men  between  20  and  30 
years  of  age  11.3  died  annually,  while  of  the  married 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  71 


of  the  same  age  only  6.5  died.  Limiting  marriage  would 
prohibit  the  propagation  of  diseased  and  undesirable  chil- 
dren. This  would  be  a  long  step  forward  in  producing 
ideal  men  and  women,  fitted  for  the  highest  usefulness 
and  a  life  reaching  out  to  its  full  normal  limit. 

We  should  exercise  at  least  the  same  good  sense 
and  judgment  in  the  human  family  that  we  use  on  our 
stock  farms  where  we  permit  only  the  choicest  of  their 
kind  to  enter  the  breeding  lists. 

That  means, — as  in  animals  who  have  in  all  the  cen- 
turies of  the  past  kept  their  primeval  standard, — the 
survival  of  the  fittest,  and  the  fittest  is  always  the  best. 

Dr.  Woods  Hutchinson  proves  that  90  per  cent  of  our 
prostitutes  come  down  from  the  intermarriage  of  the 
ignorant,  the  degenerate,  the  idle,  the  mercenary.  Lu- 
ther Burbank  tells  us  in  his  charming  little  book  "The 
Training  of  the  Human  Plant" — "It  would  be  best  if 
possible  to  prohibit  in  every  State  in  the  Union,  the  mar- 
riage of  the  physically  and  mentally  and  morally  unfit. 
What  then  shall  we  say  of  two  people  of  absolutely 
defined  physical  impairment  who  are  allowed  to  marry 
and  rear  children?  It  is  a  crime  against  the  State  and 
every  individual  in  the  State."  Every  State  and  country 
for  the  protection  of  its  commonwealth  should  enact  a 
Marriage  Law,  allowing  no  license  to  be  issued  except  to 
the  applicant  who  could  successfully  meet  a  required 
standpoint. 

Many  thoughtless  writers  ridicule  Eugenics  — or  the 
mating  of  high  standard  men  and  women — as  a  fad.  A 
writer  who  would  decry  high  breeding  in  animals  or  in 
plant  life  would  be  regarded  by  the  scientific  and  well 
informed  as  too  ignorant  to  be  taken  seriously. 

If  there  is  any  truth  that  careful  breeding  on  a  stock 
farm  makes  a  superior  animal,  and  if  Burbank  in  plant 


72  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


selection   improves   the  garden   and   orchard   products, 
then  there  is  logic  and  truth  in  Eugenics. 

If  man  breeding  were  adopted  along  the  lines  of  ani- 
mal breeding,  in  five  generations  we  would  have  no  in- 
sane asylums,  no  penitentiaries,  no  deaf,  dumb  and  blind 
asylums,  no  alms  houses,  fewer  prostitutes,  and  a  hundred 
to  125  years  would  be  the  average  life  of  man. 

Dr.  Harvey  W.  Wiley,  the  Ex.  U.  S.  Chemist  says: 
"Persons  afflicted  with  incurable  diseases  or  who  are  im- 
becile or  otherwise  grievously  diseased,  should  be  pro- 
hibited from  marrying.  Man  is  entitled  to  the  protec- 
tion of  the  State.  I  therefore  urge  the  establishment  of 
regulations  to  limit  marriages  to  healthy,  normal  individ- 
uals. While  heredity  has  much  to  do  with  great  age, 
it  may  be  promoted  by  quiet,  regular  habits,  moderation 
in  eating  and  abstention  from  the  use  of  stimulants  and 
tobacco." 

Longevity,  like  other  qualities  of  mind  and  body  is, 
of  course,  hereditary.  Long  life  has  always  in  evidence 
a  sound  physique,  equable  disposition,  both  of  which  is 
inherited.  A  writer  tells  us  '  'Perhaps  the  most  striking  in- 
stance of  hereditary  longevity  may  be  found  in  the  case 
of  Thomas  Parr,  who  died  in  London  in  1635,  aged  152 
years,  and  was  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey.  He  was 
a  farmer  and  worked  to  the  age  of  130,  married  his  sec- 
ond wife  at  122.  Thomas  Parr  had  a  son  who  died  at 
113,  2  grandsons  who  lived  to  be  124  and  127  respec- 
tively." 

Captain  G.  E.  D.  Diamond,  1796-1915,  now  living  in 
San  Francisco,  aged  119,  had  a  father,  Joseph  Diamond, 
who  died  in  Huntsville,  Ala.  in  1866,  aged  104. 

The  writer  had  an  uncle,  Jacob  Daubenspeck,  who 
died  in  Rushville,  Indiana  1894,  aged  100,  and  another 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  73 


uncle,  Jacob  Smelsor,  who  died  in  Richmond,  Indiana, 
aged  104,  and  an  aunt  who  died  at  106. 

Dr.  Benjamin  Rush,  an  eminent  observer,  said  he  had 
never  met  a  person  over  eighty  whose  ancestors  were  not 
long  lived.  . 

Mr.  William  C.  Reed,  of  Bakersfield,  Calif.,  101  years 
old,  writes  us  that  his  father  lived  to  be  105  and  his 
mother  91.  In  1886  Mon.  and  Mms.  Ballot,  aged  re- 
spectively 105  years  and  4  months  and  105  years  and  1 
month,  died  within  two  days  of  each  other,  at  Vangerard, 
54  Rue  Cambronne.  It  is  noticeable  that  when  two  very 
old  people  who  have  lived  together  many  years  and  one 
of  them  dies  the  other  often  follows  soon  after.  Being 
very  old  and  feeble,  they  cannot  survive  the  shock  of 
their  loss.  The  climate,  food  and  daily  habits  that  bring 
long  life  to  one  of  a  married  couple  will  logically  act 
similarly  on  the  other.  Lajoncourt  tells  us  of  a  South 
American  of  143  years  and  whose  wife  lived  to  117. 
Mrs.  Kiethe,  of  Gloucester,  England,  lived  133  years 
and  had  three  daughters  who  lived  111,  110  and  109  re- 
spectively. 

Dr.  Abernathy  says  "In  your  food,  restrict  yourself 
as  to  quantity  rather  than  quality,  eat  slowly  and  drink 
at  close  of  meal,  give,  attention  to  diet,  air,  exercise, 
mental  tranquillity  and  not  medicine — these  contribute  to 
the  preservation  of  health  and  prolongation  of  life." 
Dr.  Abernathy  died  at  67.  He  could  preach  like  most  of 
us  better  than  he  could  practice.  Francis  Kongo,  a  na- 
tive of  Smyrna  and  Venetian  Consul,  died  in  1702,  aged 
113.  He  lived  as  he  grew  old,  chiefly  on  broths  and 
drank  no  wine.  He  was  never  sick  and  took  a  daily 
walk  of  eight  miles.  He  was  married  five  times  and  had 
49  children.  When  about  100  his  white  hair  fell  out  and 


74  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

it  was  succeeded  by  a  crop  of  its  original  color,  and  at 
112  he  cut  two  teeth. 

Thompson  tells  of  John  Tice,  who  died  in  1774,  aged 
125  years.  At  80  he  fell  from  a  tree  and  broke  both 
legs  and  at  100  he  fell  into  some  live  coals  and  was 
badly  burned  but  neither  seemed  to  check  his  longevity. 
Both  Kongo  and  Tice  lived  very  temperate  lives. 

James  Cain,  a  Chicago  pioneer,  who  died  in  that  city 
January  29,  1912,  aged  102,  often  told  his  friends  that 
a  diet  of  rye  bread,  supplemented  with  a  little  other  food 
was  his  secret  of  longevity.  Many  of  the  old  philoso- 
phers attained  great  age,  among  them  Pythagoras  and 
Democritus,  who  attributed  their  long  lives  to  "oil  with- 
out any  honey  within." 

Chauncey  Depew,  statesman  and  wit,  celebrating  his 
eightieth  natal  anniversary  in  New  York  on  May  22, 
1914,  gives  tersely  his  secret  of  longevity:  'To  laugh 
with  our  friends,  to  contribute  to  their  cheerfulness,  have 
done  more  than  all  else  to  keep  me  healthy  and  happy." 

Mr.  William  Kinnear  tells  us  in  the  "North  Ameri- 
can" that  it  is  possible  to  live  200  years  if  the  following 
diet  is  followed  from  youth  up:  "To  avoid  all  foods 
which  are  rich  in  the  earthly  salts,  using  much  fruit,  es- 
pecially juicy,  uncooked  apples  and  to  take  daily  two  or 
three  tumblers  of  distilled  water  with  ten  or  fifteen  drops 
of  diluted  phosphoric  acid  in  each  glass.  As  age  ad- 
vances the  accumulations  become  greater  than  the  power 
of  elimination  and  the  functions  of  the  body  are  blocked 
and  death  is  the  result." 

Dr.  Yorke  Davis,  in  the  "Popular  Science  Monthly,'9 
says :  "The  length  of  man's  life  depends  on  the  way  he 
lives.  Plenty  of  good  food,  air  and  exercise  in  early 
life  are  factors  which  conduce  to  old  age.  Corpulency 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  7S 


is  one  of  the  most  fatal  barriers  to  long  life  and  can  be 
easily  obviated  by  avoiding  the  foods  that  make  fat." 

Dr.  Webber,  a  London  physician  90  years  of  age  in 
the  "British  Medical  Journal"  of  1914  speaks  advisedly 
of  long  life  as  follows  :  "Be  moderate  in  food  and  drink 
and  all  physical  pleasures,  go  to  bed  early,  rise  early,  take 
bath  daily,  rub  body  well,  avoid  alcohol,  narcotics  and 
soothing  drugs." 

Madame  Nauserine,  who  died  on  March  12th  in  1756, 
135  years  of  age,  attributed  her  long  life  to  "Extreme  so- 
briety, no  worry,  body  and  mind  quite  calm." 

Metchnikofr"  says  "Hygienic  measures  have  been  most 
successful  in  prolonging  life  and  in  lessening  the  ills  of 
old  age." 

Ninon  de  L'Enclos,  the  most  beautiful  Parisienne  of 
the  17th  century,  retaining  her  phenomenal  beauty  of 
person  and  mind  to  her  90th  year, — for  70  years  holding 
undisputed  sway  over  the  greatest  minds  of  France  from 
King  to  savants,  attributes  her  long  life  to  "Amiabil- 
ity of  mind  and  hygienic  care  of  the  body" — expiring  on 
the  17th  day  of  October,  1706,  as  one  falls  asleep. 

Whitelaw  Reid,  minister  to  England,  writes  to  us  from 
the  following  data  regarding  the  number  of  centenarians 
in  Great  Britain.  "England  and  Wales  146,  Scotland  41, 
Ireland  497,  the  Isle  of  Man  and  Channel  Islands  1." 
If  Ireland  had  proportionately  England's  population  the 
Emerald  Isle  would  have  3,996  centenarians  to  England's 
146.  Scotland  has  approximately  the  same  population 
as  Ireland,  yet  Ireland  has  nearly  four  times  the  number 
of  people  over  100  years  of  age.  Here  we  have  food 
again  playing  an  important  part  in  longevity.  It  is  Ire- 
land's potatoes,  vegetables  and  milk,  pitted  against  Eng- 
land's roast  beef,  ale  and  plum  pudding.  The  former 
produces  pro  rata  nearly  thirty  times  the  number  of  cen- 


76  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

tenarians  that  are  found  in  England.  Scotland  with  its 
oatmeal  and  porridge  produces  four  times  more  centen- 
arians pro  rata  than  England. 

The  thoughtful  and  wise  can  prolong  life  as  a  rule 
to  an  advanced  age.  If  you  are  a  "Good  Fellow/'  fond  of 
wines  and  late  dinners,  quit  them  like  Cornaro,  who  at 
40  was  a  physical  wreck  from  such  dissipation  and  by 
subsequent  abstemious  and  temperate  life  lived  to  be  100. 
If  you  live  in  a  cold  and  changeable  climate,  leave  it  for 
a  balmy,  sub-tropical  one  and  your  life  will  be  extended. 

If  you  are  a  glutton,  like  Vitellius,  with  every  organ 
worked  to  its  full  limit  disposing  of  needlessly  unneces- 
sary food,  overworking  the  vital  organs,  eat  a  smaller 
quantity  and  that  of  easily  digested  pabulum,  and  the  joy 
of  living  will  be  your  reward. 

If  you  have  been  a  meat  eater  and  have  passed  fifty — 
or  at  any  age,  leading  a  sedentary  life, — eschew  meat  for 
a  vegetable  diet  and  you  will  get  rid  of  intestinal  putre- 
faction that  unquestionably  shortens  life.  If  you  have 
been  addicted  to  alcohol  abstain  from  it,  for  it  destroys 
thousands  and  benefits  none.  If  you  have  been  occupy- 
ing illy  ventilated  bedrooms  or  day  rooms  and  vitiating 
every  organ  with  carbonic  acid  gas  poison,  let  in  the  pure 
air  from  the  sea,  the  dale  or  the  mountains,  and  life  will 
have  another  meaning  for  you.  If  you  have  been  living 
a  sedentary  life  and  riding  to  and  fro  from  your  work, 
walk  if  possible,  breathe  deeply  and  constipation  and  in- 
digestion will  quickly  disappear.  If  you  have  been  wor- 
rying over  your  affairs,  right  them  if  you  can,  if  you  can- 
not, cease  from  anxiety,  for  it  is  futile  and  worry  kills. 
If  you  are  old  and  poor,  no  home,  no  money,  do  not 
think  of  suicide,  the  resort  of  cowards,  but  go  to  that 
home  provided  by  the  State  and  many  happy  years  may 
yet  be  in  store  for  you.  The  State  should  however,  pre- 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  77 

vent  this  humiliation  of  its  poor  citizens.  Each  State 
owes  it  to  its  own  self  respect  to  pension  its  poor  over 
65,  as  Germany,  France,  England,  New  Zealand  and  Bel- 
gium and  save  them  from  the  disgrace  of  the  almshouse. 

"Frederick  Moore,  in  the  National  Geographic  Mag- 
azine,  of  October  1913,  says  of  the  Romanians,  the  long- 
est lived  country  of  Europe,  "that  their  chief  diet  is  maize 
porridge  and  vegetables,  rarely  including  meat." 

The  Hungarian  records  of  the  18th  Century  tell  us 
of  goat  herders  whose  diet  was  chiefly  goat's  milk  and 
cheese  dying  at  ages  ranging  from  147  to  172  years. 
Surgeon  General  Wm.  Hammond  of  the  U.  S.  Army,  a 
few  years  ago  thought  he  had  found  the  elixir  of  life  in 
goat  serum  which  he  used  with  remarkable  success  in 
the  rejuvenation  of  the  aged. 

The  deterioration  of  the  thyroid  gland,  which  usually 
is  the  accompaniment  of  old  age,  produces  the  piping 
voice,  impotency  and  senility.  Old  age  can  be  deferred 
Metchnikoff  and  Lorand  both  claim,  by  rejuvenating  this 
gland  which  can  be  done  in  a  measure,  with  the  extract 
of  thyroid  of  sheep,  daily  given  to  the  patient.  An  im- 
provement is  soon  perceived  in  general  health,  in  a  more 
youthful  appearance,  and  virility  often  returns,  the  voice 
grows  stronger  and  life  is  prolonged.  Goat  milk,  cow's 
milk,  sour  milk,  and  raw  eggs  are  foods,  that  by  increas- 
ing metabolism,  exert  a  marked  beneficial  influence  on 
longevity  by  improving  the  condition  of  the  thyroid  and 
sexual  glands. 

Sir  Victor  Horsley,  a  pioneer  in  the  study  of  myxe- 
dema,  a  decreased  oxidation  which  has  a  close  connec- 
tion with  senility,  ascribes  old  age  to  the  degeneration  of 
the  thyroid  gland.  If  the  thyroid  gland  and  the  sexual 
glands  are  prevented  from  deteriorating,  old  age  will  be 
deferred.  Lorand  says  "It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  ex- 


78  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


tirpation  of  the  ovaries  and  testicles  is  followed  by  obes- 
ity and  other  symptoms  of  old  age.  Now  eunuchs  as  a 
rule,  look  much  older  than  their  age.  All  agencies  which 
are  harmful  to  the  thyroid  gland,  as  syphilis,  abundant 
meat  food,  alcohol  and  tobacco,  toxic  products  which 
cause  arteriosclerosis,  a  limy  deposit — which  is  one  of  the 
chief  causes  of  the  apoplexy  of  old  age." 

Undoubtedly  the  Swiss,  being  so  affected  by  cretin- 
ism— a  morbific  enlargement  of  the  thyroid  gland  called 
"goiter"  may  attribute  this  as  the  reason  why  Switzer- 
land has  so  few  old  people  and  no  centenarians. 

Various  means  of  prolonging  life  have  been  sought 
after  in  all  ages  from  King  David  down  to  Brown  Se- 
quard.  Gerokomy  or  uniting  with  old  men  a  young  and 
vigorous  girl,  to  impart  life  to  the  aged  and  feeble,  has 
been  practiced  more  or  less  in  all  ages — and  with  bene- 
ficial results. 

Cohansen,  a  physician  of  the  18th  Century  tells  us  of 
Hermippus,  a  Roman  Schoolmaster  who  taught  young 
girls  all  his  life  and  lived  to  be  115  years  old.  The 
Tavises,  two  centuries  before  Christ,  discovered  a  draught 
of  immortality  known  as  the  "golden  elixir."  The  chem- 
ists and  ancient  alchemists  have  vainly  striven  for  a  pan- 
acea to  prolong  life. 

Brown  Sequard  made  some  advancements  for  a  spe- 
cific against  senescense,  in  rejuvenating  the  aged  and  de- 
laying senility,  by  the  employment  of  sub-cutaneous  in- 
jections of  the  emulsion  of  the  testes  of  animals — but 
hygienic  measures  have  been  more  generally  successful. 

Prof.  Irving  Fisher,  U.  S.  Good  Food  Expert,  gives 
to  us  concisely  in  two  words,  the  factors  that  produce 
long  life— -"Avoid  poisons." 

Francis  Moule  Bjorkman,  commenting  on  ^Prof. 
Fisher's  political  economy  says  "Avoid  poisons,  poisoned 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  79 

air,  poisoned  water,  poisoned  food,  poisonous  thoughts, 
poisonous  emotions  and  just  plain  poisons  like  alcohol, 
tobacco  and  drugs.  Breathe  deeply  of  pure  air,  eat  ab- 
stemiously of  foods  demanded  by  a  normal  appetite. 

"Exercise  for  the  delight  of  physical  expression,  not 
to  win  a  game  or  because  you  think  you  ought  to,  exer- 
cise the  intellect  and  the  emotions  as  well  as  the  muscles. 
Wear  as  few  clothes  as  possible  and  those  of  porous 
material,  so  disposed  as  not  to  weigh  too  heavily  upon, 
constrict  or  destroy  the  balance  of  the  body. 

"Bathe  frequently  enough  to  keep  the  skin  in  condition 
for  performing  its  eliminative  functions. 

"Keep  cheerful — don't  worry!' 

Air,  air,  air,  will  promote  longevity  as  nothing  else 
will.  Pure  air  is  life,  foul  air  is  death.  Remember  "The 
Black  Hole  of  Calcutta" — and  the  underground  room 
where  the  three  hundred  men  were  confined  after  the 
battle  of  Austerlitz.  In  every  house  they  are  duplicated. 
John  Muir  says  "As  long  as  I  camp  out  in  the  mountains 
without  tent  or  blanket,  I  am  comfortable,  but  the  mo- 
ment I  get  into  a  house,  I  am  coughing  and  sneezing  and 
threatened  with  pneumonia."  Windows  for  sunlight  and 
pure  air,  should  be  in  every  room  and  always  open,  as  it 
is  imperative  to  health — yet  Dr.  Jacobi  says  "There  are 
in  New  York  City  300,000  rooms  without  a  window" 
— a  burning  disgrace  to  Gotham's  Board  of  Health. 

The  eminent  hygienist,  Dr.  A.  T.  Schofield,  of  Lon- 
don, says  "We  can  neutralize  the  value  of  open  air  in  the 
day  by  a  tightly  closed  bedroom  at  night.  It  is  the  in- 
door life  that  kills.  Night  air  is  only  poisonous  when 
found  indoors." 

Dr.  Pierce  Kintzing  says  "Foul  air  impairs  character, 
02 one  engenders  optimism,  bad  air  makes  a  pessimist" 


80  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


Prof.  Alvin  Davison  says  "It  was  thought  until  re- 
cently that  night  air  was  unhealthy  but  analysis  has 
shown  it  to  be  purer  than  day  air.  Sleeping  in  the  night 
air  has  been  one  of  the  most  efficient  means  of  curing 
tuberculosis."  Dr.  Rinsing-  tells  us  "that  50,000  persons 
in  New  York  City  are  afflicted  with  tuberculosis,  of 
which  9,000  die  annually,  all  of  which  could  be  prevented 
by  pure  air,  for  Koch,  of  Germany,  the  discoverer  of  the 
germ,  maintains  that  it  is  an  inhalation  disease." 

Dr.  Woods  Hutchinson  says,  "We  know  fresh  air  is 
necessary  to  life  and  yet  night  after  night  we  shut  and 
lock  our  bedroom  windows  as  though  the  night  air  was  a 
pestilence — in  the  day  time  we  observe  the  same  fear  in 
our  office — business  being  over  we  fly  to  another  her- 
metically sealed  room  and  dine — then  for  relaxation  we 
repair  to  a  packed  and  reeking  den  called  a  theatre,  as 
innocent  of  ventilation  as  the  "Black  Hole  of  Calcutta," 
where  packed  among  three  thousand  other  human  beings 
we  breathe  the  emanations  from  their  lungs,  skin  and 
teeth  for  three  more  hours. 

"Then  we  talk  of  the  terrible  strain  of  modern  city  life. 
The  worst  strain  is  not  on  the  brain  but  on  the  lungs. 
Apart  from  its  foul  air,  city  life  is  the  easiest,  happiest 
and  practically  the  healthiest  life  yet  invented." 

Our  own  inimitable  Artemus  Ward,  whom  the  writer 
knew  well  who  met  his  death  by  tuberculosis  in  the  foul 
air  of  the  lecture  room — serio-comically  remarked  when 
lecturing  in  the  Egyptian  Hall,  Picadilly,  London,  "I  wish 
that  when  the  Egyptians  built  this  hall  they  had  provided 
some  means  for  its  ventilation." 

One  day  the  writer  was  called  to  see  an  infant  dying 
with  teething-.  It  was  in  a  hot  kitchen — not  a  breath  of 
air— -with  burning  fever,  inability  to  digest  its  food  and 
with  the  sweat  of  death  on  its  brow.  He  ordered  it  put 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  81 

in  a  baby  wagon  wheeled  daily  for  hours  in  the  open  air, 
kept  in  a  well  ventilated  room  during  the  night  and  day 
as  well  with  some  other  hygienic  and  dietic  advice  and 
in  a  fortnight  it  was  restored  to  health.  Eternal  vig- 
ilance is  not  only  the  price  of  liberty  but  it  is  the  price 
of  health.  On  a  busy  city  street  we  inhale  14,000  mi- 
crobes every  hour,  says  Dr.  Schofield,  and  to  combat  this 
infection  we  must  have  personal  hygiene,  hygiene  of  nu- 
trition, and  hygiene  of  activity. 

In  addition  we  are  nearly  all  handicapped  by  heredity, 
habits  or  environment  which  we  must  overcome.  Cor- 
naro,  at  37,  forswore  drunkeness  and  lived  to  be  a  cen- 
tenarian— Humboldt  was  a  puny  boy  physically  and 
mentally — his  tutors  thought  him  deficient  in  intelligence 
but  he  surmounted  both,  became  an  intellectual  giant  and 
lived  to  be  a  nonogenarian.  Fisher  reports  a  poor 
woman  in  New  York  City  who  cured  herself  of  tuber- 
culosis by  sitting  daily  on  her  fire  escape — and  other  poor 
who  had  contracted  consumption  in  their  illy  ventilated 
workshops  curing  themselves  by  sleeping  at  night  on  the 
roofs  of  their  houses. 

Sex  is  a  factor  in  long  life,  especially  in  civilized  and 
warlike  countries.  Man  is  more  exposed  than  woman  in 
the  struggle  for  existence — and  great  numbers  are  des- 
troyed in  war.  Did  this  condition  not  exist  there  would 
probably  be  little  or  no  difference  in  their  respective 
longevity,  as  the  same  number  of  sex  is  born  yearly. 
Hufeland,  a  Prussian  authority  says,  "Not  only  do  women 
live  longer  than  men  but  married  women  live  longer 
than  single  ones,  two  to  one." 

More  women  reach  115  years  than  men  in  England 
and  beyond  that  age  more  men  are  found.  The  same 
condition  exists  in  the  United  States  from  statistics  we 
have  cited.  Metchnikoff  tells  us  "That  women  reach 


82  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

a  hundred  years  and  live  beyond  that  time  much  more 
than  men."  In  Greece  in  1885,  in  a  population  of  nearly 
2,000,000  there  were  278  persons  aged  from  95  to  110 
years,  of  whom  133  were  males  and  145  females.  It  is 
singularly  interesting  to  note  that  the  female  centenarians 
in  the  United  States  were  nearly  twice  as  many  as  the 
male,  while  in  Bulgaria  they  were  nearly  the  same. 

This  can  be  attributed  to  the  fact  that  in  Bulgaria  the 
sexes  live  through  life  much  alike,  the  country  being 
pastoral  and  agricultural,  while  in  the  United  States  men 
are  more  exposed  in  war,  mining  and  navigating,  in  their 
struggle  for  a  livelihood  than  are  the  women. 

The  religious,  as  we  have  stated,  all  things  being 
equal,  live  longer  than  the  irreligious,  because  their  faith 
gives  then  a  hope  in  a  future  life — and  this  begets  a  con- 
tentment of  mind  that  is  a  potent  factor  in  longevity. 
The  possessor  of  an  amiable  disposition  will  outlive  the 
crabbed  and  irritable.  The  former  is  unaffected  by  the 
worries  of  life — while  the  latter  is  jaded  and  harassed 
until  made  ill,  by  every  annoying  care  of  the  day.  John 
Wesley,  one  of  the  world's  great  men,  died  in  1791,  aged 
88  years.  He  did  not  inherit  a  robust  constitution  but 
acquired  it  by  being  exceedingly  temperate — arose  regu- 
larly at  an  early  hour,  was  of  cheerful  disposition  and 
even  temper,  took  constant  exercise  and  was  a  lover  of 
regularity. 

Leo  the  XIII  one  of  the  most  eminent  and  learned 
of  the  Popes,  accomplished  an  almost  insurmountable 
amount  of  work,  but  was  possessed  with  a  placid  disposi- 
tion that  did  not  worry,  and  lived  to  be  93.  An  old  man 
is  said  to  be  like  an  old  wagon — with  light  loading  and 
careful  usage  it  will  last  for  years — but  one  heavy  load 
or  a  sudden  strain  will  break  it  and  ruin  it  for  ever. 
The  writer  heard  William  Cullen  Bryant,  at  the  unveil- 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  83 

ing  of  the  statute  of  Mazzini  in  Central  Park,  New  York, 
one  hot  summer's  day  in  1876.  The  poet  was  80  years 
old  but  had  the  well  preserved  appearance  of  a  man  of  65 
or  70. 

Bryant  sat  for  a  long  time  on  the  platform  in  the 
heat  of  the  day  and  then  made  the  speech  of  the  occa- 
sion— his  head  bared  to  the  hot  sun.  Entering  his  son- 
in-law's  residence  nearby  at  the  conclusion  of  the  services 
he  fell  with  apoplexy — the  old  wagon  got  a  sudden  strain 
and  gave  way. 

With  care  and  quiet  and  freedom  from  exposure  to 
extremes  of  temperature  the  author  of  Thanatopsis  might 
have  lived  years  longer. 

Dr.  Charles  K.  Mills,  Professor  of  Neurology  in  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania  says  "Brain- fag  from  over- 
work is  not  making  nervous  wrecks  out  of  the  American 
people.  It  is  dissipation.  Mere  brain  work  does  not 
hurt.  Where  the  mind  is  equipped  and  capable  men  may 
be  at  work  all  day  and  half  the  night.  Worry  and  dis- 
sipation cause  nervous  break  downs." 

The  King  of  all  thinkers — Shakespeare — philos- 
ophized therapeutically  when  he  wrote  "Frame  your  mind 
to  mirth  and  merriment,  which  bars  a  thousand  harms 
and  lengthens  life." 

Physical  exercise,  when  severe,  by  overstraining  the 
heart,  shortens  life.  Hard  working  laborers,  gymnasts, 
heavy  lifters,  prize  fighters,  and  athletes  who  lead  a  stren- 
uous life,  do  not  as  a  rule,  live  to  an  advanced  age. 

Dr.  Kintzing,  in  his  "Long  Life  and  How  to  Attain 
It"  says,  "A  man,  to  attain  long  life,  must  keep  his  body 
in  equilibrium  and  not  allow  the  accumulation  of  useless 
fat.  Neither  the  very  small  nor  very  large,  the  over 
strong  nor  the  abnormally  weak,  are  apt  to  represent  the 
longevity  class.  The  average  height  of  persons  over 


84  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

eighty  is  57  inches.  The  early  children  of  a  family  are 
longest  lived.  The  long  lived  must  be  moderate  eaters 
and  consume  very  little  animal  food.  He  must  use  very 
little  alcohol,  he  must  be  cheerful,  of  even  temper,  placid 
and  mild,  he  should  live  in  the  open,  his  life  must  not  be 
sedentary — a  suburban  is  better  than  a  city  life — sleep 
with  windows  open,  take  morning  cold  baths,  walk  a 
few  miles  daily,  cut  out  strong  cigars,  take  a  light  wine 
instead  of  alcohol,  eat  more  greens  and  less  meat,  and 
you  will  near  the  century  mark  before  your  obituary  is 
written." 

Cancer — a  deadly  foe  to  longevity — is  confined,  it  has 
recently  been  discovered,  to  the  meat  eater.  Vegetarians 
are  exempt  from  this  malignant  disease,  that  destroys 
one-seventh  the  human  family. 

Longevity  and  a  mild  temper  have  a  correlative  bear- 
ing one  on  the  other. 

An  English  writer  has  well  said:  "That  while  ex- 
cessive labor,  exposure  to  wet  and  cold,  deprivation  of 
sufficient  and  wholesome  food,  bad  lodging,  sloth  and  in- 
temperance are  all  deadly  enemies  of  human  life,  none  of 
them  are  so  destructive  in  their  effects  as  violent  and  un- 
governed  passion.  Men  and  women  have  survived  all 
the  former  and  at  last  reached  an  extreme  old  age — but 
it  may  be  safely  doubted  whether  a  single  instance  can 
be  found  of  the  man  of  violent  and  irascible  temper,  ha- 
bitually subject  to  storms  of  ungovernable  passion,  who 
has  arrived  at  a  very  advanced  period  of  life." 

Monsieur  Metchnikoff,  head  of  the  Pasteur  Institute 
of  France,  recently  stated  that  he  has  not  only  discovered 
"The  germ  that  creates  Old  Age"  but  that  he  has  also 
discovered  the  germ  that  eats  the  germ  that  creates  Old 
Age." 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  85 


If  we  had  in  the  generations  past  lived  a  natural  life 
— as  do  the  animals  in  their  wild  state — we  would  not 
have  any  bacilli  of  old  age  to  be  destroyed  by  antagonis- 
tic microbes,  but  as  we  have  not  lived  close  to  nature, 
we  welcome  MetchnikofFs  discovery  as  we  did — Jenner's 
vaccination,  Jackson's  anesthesia,  Klebs-Loeffler  diptheria 
bacillus,  Koch's  Bacillus  tuberculosis,  the  Bacillus  icte- 
roides  of  Sanerelli,  the  Comma  bacillus  of  Koch — and 
Pasteur's  serum  for  Rabies. 

Dr.  Alex  Carrel,  the  eminent  biologist  of  the  Rocke- 
feller Institute  of  Medical  Research,  has  recently  (1913) 
demonstrated  that  human  cells,  excised  from  the  human 
body  can  be  kept  alive  indefinitely  if  sustained  in  a  proper 
medium — and  concludes  that  if  our  various  vital  organs 
are  properly  safeguarded,  there  is  no  reason  why  man 
should  not  live  forever. 

Fanny  J.  Crosby,  the  famous  blind  hymn  writer,  aged 
94,  author  of  "Safe  in  the  Arms  of  Jesus,"  writes  us 
March  16,  1914,  from  her  home,  Bridgeport,  Conn. 
"I  cannot  attribute  my  long  life  to  anything  except  I 
have  never  worried,  have  lived  the  normal  life  of  a  happy 
woman,  and  have  trusted  in  my  Heavenly  Father." 
Delia  C.  Torrey,  aunt  of  Ex.-President  Taft,  a  nono- 
genarian,  writes  me  from  Millbury,  Mass.,  December 
7,  1913 :  "My  ancestors  were  all  long  lived,  have  always 
guarded  my  appetite,  my  habits  are  regular." 

Dr.  N.  S.  Davis,  the  eminent  surgeon,  speaking  of  at- 
tributes of  long  life,  says,  "Nothing  will  contribute  more 
towards  protracting  the  period  of  old  age  and  rendering 
it  healthy  than  the  possession  of  a  contented,  cheerful, 
and  hopeful  state  of  mind,  and  nothing  is  so  certain  to 
develop  this  as  a  life  well  spent  in  useful  work,  coupled 
with  that  serene  hopefulness  in  a  future  life  which  a  full 
faith  in  the  Christian  religion  alone  inspires." 


86  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


Longevity  has  advanced  more  years  in  the  general 
average  of  life  in  the  past  century  than  in  all  the  cen- 
turies that  have  preceded. 

In  every  age  we  have  had  long  lived  men  and  women 
— far  beyond  a  hundred — but  in  prior  ages  the  general 
average  of  life  was  about  20  years,  because  hygiene  was 
not  known  and  practiced  by  the  masses.  Now  the  State 
has  awakened  to  the  necessity  of  vital  conservation  and 
each  year  legal  enactments  are  becoming  more  stringent 
in  every  detail  of  life,  and  as  a  result  the  general  average 
of  life  is  increasing.  If  continued  another  century,  we 
will  see  average  life  reaching  out  to  100 — then  the  possi- 
bility of  reaching  the  maximum  of  150  years  is  not  a 
contingency.  Municipal  hygiene,  State  hygiene  and  Fed- 
eral hygiene  in  the  hands  of  Boards  of  Health  can  for- 
ward and  perfect  this  movement  for  longevity. 

Dr.  Arnold  Lorand,  the  distinguished  Austrian  Phy- 
sician, in  his  celebrated  work  "Old  Age  Deferred,"  lays 
down  twelve  rules  to  promote  long  life  which  would  be 
the  ne  plus  ultra,  if  to  these  rules  were  added,  climate,  a 
semitropical,  sea  level  climate,  such  as  is  found  in  per- 
fection in  California — yet  withal,  they  are  highly  valued 
and  we  present  them  to  the  reader. 

"1.    To  be  as  much  as  possible  in  the  open  air  and  sunshine, 
plenty  of  exercise,  breathe  deeply  and  regularly. 

2.  To  live^  on  meats  only  once  daily,  eggs,  cereals,  green 
vegetables,  fruit,  pure  raw  milk  and  masticate  thoroughly. 

3.  To  take  baths  daily. 

4.  To  have  a  daily  action  of  the  bowels. 

5.  To   wear  porous  underwear,   loose   collars,   light   hats, 
if  any. 

6.  To  bed  e^rly  and  rise  early. 

7.  To  sleep  in  a  dark  quiet  room,  window  up,  and  sleep 
si^  or  six  and  a  half  hours. 

8.  Have  vacation  one  day  every  week  and  absolutely  do 
nothing. 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  87 


9.    Do   not  worry,  say   nothing   unpleasant,   and  listen   to 
nothing  unpleasant. 

10.  //  single,  get  married,  and  avoid  sexual  excesses. 

11.  Be  temperate  in  the   use  of  alcohol,  tobacco,  tea  and 

12.'  Avoid  overheated  and  illy  ventilated  rooms— to  replace 
or  re-inforce  the  functions  changed  by  age  or  disease,  but  under 
the  care  of  a  physician." 


CHAPTER  IV. 
Longevity  of  California  Trees. 

Pot  Plants  East  Grow  Into  Trees  Here—The  Flora  Highly 
Prolific — Enormous  Growth  of  Vegetation — Children 
Grow  Large — A  Winterless  Year — John  Muir's  Redwood 
Giant — A  Sequoia  Gigantea  5,500  Years  Old  and  No 
Signs  of  Decay — The  "Grizzly  Giant"  Scientists  Believe 
to  Be  8,000  Years  Old. 

The  flora  of  California  is  longer  lived  that  the  flora 
of  any  other  State,  or  that  of  any  other  country  in  the 
world. 

Annuals  elsewhere — most  of  them  become  perennials 
here, — pot  plants  in  the  east,  often  grow  into  trees  in 
our  trans-Rocky  Mountain  States,  develops  into  a  large 
tree  here,  several  inches  in  diameter,  and  bearing  on  its 
widespread  branches  roses  by  the  thousand. 

Vegetation  grows  to  an  enormous  size.  Possibly  we 
have  a  reason  in  a  twelve  month  growth — in  a  twelve 
month  flood  of  sunshine.  Moonshine  stimulates  growth, 
as  do  electric  lights  at  night,  but  the  great  number  of  days 
in  the  year  of  genial  sunshine  is  the  secret. 

A  horticulturist  of  California  writes  of  a  peach  tree 
he  planted  from  the  seed,  and  in  28  months  it  bore  fruit 
9  inches  in  circumference — weighing  8  ounces — and  34 
on  the  tree. 

In  the  Board  of  Trade  rooms  at  the  Ferry  Building 
in  San  Francisco  you  will  find  the  most  remarkable  ex- 

88 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  89 


hibition  of  horticultural  and  agricultural  products  of  Cal- 
ifornia— an  exhibition  that  cannot  be  duplicated  by  any 
other  city  or  any  other  country  in  the  world : 

A  beet  weighing  56  Ibs. 

A  pumpkin  weighing 250  Ibs. 

A  radish  weighing   40  Ibs. 

A  watermelon  weighing 50  Ibs. 

A  sweet  potato  weighing 12  Ibs. 

An  Irish  potato  weighing 8  Ibs. 

An  apple  weighing  4  Ibs. 

Turnip  grown  in  40  days 23  Ibs. 

Millet 10  ft.  high 

Wheat 103  bu.  to  the  acre 

Alfalfa 12  tons  to  the  acre 

We  know  of  no  other  State  or  country  or  climate 
but  California  where  the  wizard — Luther  Burbank — 
could  carry  on  his  marvelous  investigations. 

Thirty-five  years  ago,  says  Binner  in  his  Brochure  on 
Luther  Burbank,  the  potatoes  were  round,  red  and  small 
— now  they  are  long,  white  skinned  and  large.  He  has 
produced  a  walnut  which  grows  twice  as  rapidly,  a  thorn- 
less  cactus  that  produces  200  tons  of  food  to  the  acre,  a 
seedling  chestnut  that  bears  a  crop  of  nuts,  after  six 
months  growth,  from  the  seed.  He  has  produced  a  cob- 
less  corn,  10,000  different  kinds  of  plums,  a  stoneless 
plum,  thornless  blackberries,  white  blackberries,  and  a 
cherry  tree  on  which  there  are  more  than  200  varieties. 

The  large  average  of  sunlight  and  the  warm,  genial 
climate  every  month  of  the  year,  stimulates  the  phenom- 
enally rapid  growth  in  California  of  everything  that  lives. 

Children  at  10  years  of  age  average  as  large  as  chil- 
dren of  12  east  of  the  mountains — for  unquestionably 
children,  as  trees  and  animals,  are  stunted  in  their  growth 
by  the  long  cold  winters. 

A  two-year-old  colt  here  is  as  large  and  strong  as  a 
three-year-old  in  the  Eastern  States,  a  fact  often  proven 


90  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


on  the  race  course,  where  the  standard  and  thoroughbred 
have  often  carried  the  banners  of  the  Golden  State  to 
victory. 

Poultry  show  their  appreciation  of  our  beneficient 
climate  by  laying  annually  (1913)  50,000,000  dozen  eggs. 
The  cows,  not  to  be  excelled,  furnish  us  45,489,140  Ibs. 
of  butter  yearly,  and  the  busy  bee  finds  so  many  sunshiny 
days  in  the  year  in  which  to  gather  from  the  flowers  12,- 
000,000  Ibs.  of  honey. 

A  cow  owned  by  Morris  &  Sons,  Woodland,  Cal. — 
Tillie  Alcartra — has  broken  the  world's  milk  producing 
record,  yielding  30,452  pounds  per  year. 

Life  in  our  California  climate  touches  the  gamut  of 
all  existence — from  the  insect  that  lives  but  a  day,  to  the 
"Gigantea  Sequoia" — the  Giant  Redwood,  whose  life 
reaches  back  fifty-five  and  more  centuries  and  today 
shows  not  a  sign  of  decay. 

J.  Smeaton  Chase,  in  his  "Yosemite  Trail"  says,  "The 
famous  Big  Trees  of  California,  the  greatest  of  all  trees, 
and  of  an  age  that  extends  to  thousands  of  years — cer- 
tainly 4,000— -possibly  much  more,  are  grown  only  .on  the 
western  slope  of  the  Sierra  Nevada — at  an  elevation  of 
5,000  to  8,500  feet." 

John  Muir,  perhaps  the  world's  greatest  writer  on 
trees,  says  in  "The  Mountains  of  California" — "The 
largest  Redwood  I  have  yet  met  in  the  course  of  my  ex- 
plorations, is  a  gigantic  old  scarred  monument  in  the 
Kings  River  Forest.  It  is  35  feet  and  8  inches  in  di- 
ameter (107  feet  in  circumference)  four  feet  from  the 
ground.  Under  the  most  favorable  conditions  these 
giants  live  5,000  years  and  more.  I  never  saw  a  Big 
Tree  die  a  natural  death — barring  accidents  they  seem  to 
be  immortal — being  exempt  from  all  age  and  decay.  No 
other  tree  in  the  world  as  far  as  I  know,  has  looked  down 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  91 


on  so  many  centuries  as  the  Sequoia.  The  old  Kings 
River  Giant  was  in  its  prime,  swaying  in  the  Sierra 
winds,  when  Christ  walked  on  the  earth."  Scientists  ar- 
rive at  the  age  of  a  tree,  as  you  know,  by  counting  the 
circles  from  center  to  circumference. 

"THE  GIANT  OF  ALL  THE  SEQUOIAS." 

The  Amador  sentinel  of  August  15,  1888,  writes: 
"Fred  McClough,  a  well  known  engineer  of  the  Corn- 
stock,  has  been  spending  some  weeks  in  the  wilds  of  the 
Sierras,  about  the  headwaters  of  the  Kaweah  River,  in 
Tulare  Country,  California.  Mr.  McClough  said,  on  his 
trip,  they  discovered  a  Sequoia  which  he  believed  to  be 
the  largest  on  the  continent  of  America.  He  found  it  to 
be  171  feet  in  circumference  (57  feet  in  diameter )  at  a 
point  above  the  ground  as  far  as  he  could  reach.  This 
monster  tree  stands  in  a  small  basin,  near  the  Kaweah 
River,  and  is  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  a  wall  of  rugged 
rocks.  The  top  of  the  tree  is  broken  off  but  it  is  still 
of  immense  height." 

There  is  a  remarkable  group  of  giant  Redwood  trees 
in  Tulare  County.  One  a  5-acre  lot,  ten  trees  were 
counted  of  the  following  dimensions : 

1   30  feet  in  diameter 

2  28  feet  in  diameter 

1   27  feet  in  diameter 

1   26  feet  in  diameter 

1 25  feet  in  diameter 

1   23  feet  in  diameter 

1   22  feet  in  diameter 

2 20  feet  in  diameter 

These  trees  were  from  275  to  325  feet  in  height,  and 
it  is  estimated  that  each  tree  would  yield  100,000  feet 
of  lumber. 

Nowhere  else  can  be  found  such  a  collection  of  trees 


92  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

of  such  enormous  proportions — and  nowhere  else  in  the 
world  can  such  longevity  be  found  among  trees. 

MARIPOSA  GROVE. 

Four  hundred  and  seventy-five  trees — "Sequoia  Gi- 
gantea" — stand  in  the  celebrated  Mariposa  Grove,  tower- 
ing from  300  to  350  feet  high,  and  from  20  to  30  feet  in 
diameter.  This  grand  collection  of  mighty  trees,  from 
3,000  to  4,000  years  old  or  more,  exceeding  in  size  and 
age  anything  known  in  the  world,  standing  without  a 
peer,  unapproached  and  unapproachable,  has  been  wisely 
secured  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  to  be 
held  in  perpetuity,  for  the  admiration  of  future  ages. 

"The  Grizzly  Giant,"  the  king  of  the  Mariposa  forest, 
the  largest  and  oldest  tree  in  the  world,  is  estimated  to 
be  8,000  years  old. 

John  Muir  gives  a  list  of  other  California  trees,  with 
their  height  and  size,  illustrative  still  further  of  Cal- 
ifornia climate,  and  the  prodigious  growth  of  other  trees 
than  the  Sequoia. 

The  Nut  Pine  grows 50  ft.  high,  6  ft.  in  diameter 

The  Sugar  Pine  grows 220  ft.  high,  12  ft.  in  diameter 

The  Yellow  Pine  grows 220  ft.  high,  6  ft.  in  diameter 

The  Incense  Cedar  grows....  150  ft.  high,  7  ft.  in  diameter 

The  Red  Fir  grows 240  ft.  high,  5  ft.  in  diameter 

The  Tamarac   Pine  grows 90  ft.  high,  6  ft.  in  diameter 

The  Douglas  Spruce  grows... 220  ft.  high,  7  ft.  in  diameter 

The  Mountain  Pine  grows....  90  ft.  high,  6  ft.  in  diameter 

The  White  Silver  Fir  grows.. 200  ft.  high,  6  ft.  in  diameter 

The  Silver  Pine  grows 210  ft.  high,  6  ft.  in  diameter 

To  show  how  much  more  productive  California  trees 
are  than  the  same  species  elsewhere,  John  Gill  Lemon, 
in  his  "West  American  Cone  Bearers"  says  : 

"Is  it  not  passing  strange,  that  out  of  20  pines  in 
Europe  and  Asia,  and  12  pines  in  the  Eastern  States,  not 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


one  should  develop  cones  as  large  as  either  one  of  the 
five  pines  in  California? 

All  species  of  trees  known  in  the  Eastern  States, 
when  found  in  California,  are  giants,  compared  to  their 
dwarfed  cousins  East  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The 
Sugar  Pine,  from  which  we  extract  the  maple  syrup, 
hardly  ever  grows  more  than  three  to  four  feet  in  diam- 
eter and  80  feet  high,  in  the  Eastern  and  Middle  States ; 
here  in  California,  Lemmon  tells  us  "grows  300  feet 
high  and  20  feet  in  diameter." 

Most  vegetation  which  is  annual  in  Eastern  America, 
when  brought  here  is  perennial — the  climate  prolonging 
their  lives  indefinitely. 

The  oak  East  of  the  mountains  is  found  at  times  6 
and  8  feet  in  diameter,  here  there  is  one  at  Wheatland, 
California,  27  feet  and  7  inches  in  diameter  and  has  a 
spread  of  145  feet. 

The  purity  of  the  air  in  this  climate — air  that  seems 
to  be  charged  with  a  large  percentage  of  ozone — carries 
with  it  a  remarkable  preservative  power.  This  is  ob- 
served by  hunters  hanging  up  their  meat  in  the  open  to 
dry — which  it  does  without  putrefaction. 

The  Government  has  issued  a  bulletin  telling  of  two 
parks  of  thirteen  groves  containing  over  12,000  trees 
greater  than  ten  feet  in  diameter. 

In  the  Sequoia  National  Park  some  of  the  trees  are 
named  after  prominent  men — the  General  Sherman  is 
286  feet  high  and  36  feet  in  diameter ;  the  Abraham  Lin- 
coln 270  feet  high  and  31  feet  in  diameter  and  the  Wil- 
liam McKinley  291  feet  high  and  28  feet  in  diameter. 

John  Muir  relates  an  extraordinary  instance  he  ob- 
served, regarding  the  preservative  effect  of  the  atmos- 
phere on  the  durability  of  the  redwood.  "I  have  a  sped- 


94  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


men  block,"  he  says,  "cut  from  a  fallen  trunk,  which 
is  hardly  distinguishable  from  specimens  cut  from  liv- 
ing trees — although  the  old  trunk  fragment  from  which 
it  is  derived,  has  lain  in  the  damp  forest  for  380  years, 
and  probably  twice  as  long.  A  fir  had  grown  out  of  the 
ditch,  which  it  made  at  the  time  it  fell,  and  in  which 
it  has  since  lain — 380  years  old." 

There  is  only  one  other  country  in  the  world  that 
has  trees  that  have  attained  to  anything  approaching  the 
age  of  the  California  redwood,  and  that  is  Cape  Verde, 
which  possesses  a  climate  somewhat  similar  to  ours.  In 
a  garden  of  Oratava  in  Teneriffe,  stood  a  gigantic  dragon 
tree,  that  was  overthrown  by  a  storm  in  1868.  It  was 
50  feet  in  circumferance,  and  as  dragon  trees  grow  slow- 
ly, it  was  estimated  to  be  3,600  to  4,000  years  old.  The 
Baobab  of  Cape  Verde  is  still  older,  and  30  feet  in  cir- 
cumference, was  estimated  by  Adamson  to  be  5,100  years 
old. 

The  Giant  Sequoias  of  the  Sierras  are  not  only  the 
Kings  but  the  Methuselahs  of  the  forest  world.  They  oc- 
cupy the  same  rank  among  the  arboreal  as  the  elephant 
does  among  the  land  animals — or  the  whale  among  the 
finny  tribes  of  the  deep. 

They  stand  today  in  their  prime  and  have  stood  as 
gigantic  sentinels,  unscathed  by  the  storms  of  fifty  cen- 
turies. Dynasties  have  risen,  flourished  for  a  time, 
passed  away  and  were  forgotten.  Kings  and  queens  ap- 
peared and  disappeared — the  nations  of  the  world,  moved 
on  in  their  turbulent  course,  battles  were  fought  and 
won,  crowns  crumbled,  but  these  mighty  trees  stood  and 
grew  and  flourished,  unmindful  of  the  centuries  as  they 
came  and  went. 

Judging  from  their  past,  we  are  led  to  think  with 
Muir — "they  are  immortal'' 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  95 


Let  travelers  tell  us  of  the  dead  geological  wonders 
of  the  world — of  the  Giant's  Causeway,  of  the  Alps  and 
the  Himalayas,  of  Niagara  and  the  Mammoth  Cave — 
but  here  in  California,  in  her  marvelous  climate,  are 
found  living  groves  of  Redwood  with  their  topmost 
branches  lost  in  the  clouds,  more  wonderful  and  awe- 
inspiring,  and  more  symmetrically  beautiful  in  their  mas- 
todonic  proportions,  challenging  our  supreme  admiration 
as  do  no  other  of  God's  masterpieces. 

Napoleon,  marching  with  his  army  under  a  burning 
Egyptian  sun,  encouraged  his  weary  men  in  their  fatigu- 
ing journey  by  these  memorable  words,  pointing  to  the 
Pyramids:  "Soldiers!  Forty  centuries  look  down  upon 
you." 

So,  as  we  look  upon  these  living  giants  of  the  forest 
world,  are  we  not  inspired  with  thoughts  equally  sub- 
lime, and  can  we  not  paraphrase  the  eloquence  of  the 
great  Corsican — and  say  to  the  beholder — as  we  point 
to  this  mighty  Sequoia,  the  grizzly  giant  of  Mariposa: 
"Behold!  Not  forty,  but  eighty  centuries  look  down 
upon  you?" 


CHAPTER  V. 
Longevity  of  the  Aborigines  of  California. 

Great  Age  of  Indians — Old  Gabriel  of  Monterey — Nut-Eating 
Indians — Meat-Eating  Indians— rA  Tejon  Indian  180 
Years  Old — Climate  Secret  of  Long  Life — General  Val- 
lejo  and  Old  Napa — Primeval  Indian  Pastoral,  Sober  and 
Industrious. 

The  longevity  of  the  California  Indian  is  the  only 
positive  test  we  have  of  what  the  climate  of  the  Golden 
State  will  do  to  prolong-  human  life — as  the  influx  of 
the  white  race  did  not  materially  begin  until  the  discov- 
ery of  gold  in  1849 — 66  years  ago  (1915). 

We  will  furnish  proof  of  the  fact  that  the  Indian  of 
California  lives  longer  by  50  to  75  years  than  he  does 
in  any  other  state  or  country  in  North  America,  as  we 
gave  evidence  to  you  in  the  preceding  chapter  of  the 
longevity  of  the  trees,  surpassing  in  long  life  not  only 
all  other  states,  but  all  other  countries.  The  reader  has 
no  doubt  already  concluded  that  climate  is  the  important 
factor  in  the  long  life  of  the  trees,  and  we  will  proceed 
to  furnish  testimony  that  it  acts  equally  favorably  in 
promoting  longevity  in  the  human  family.  To  substan- 
tiate our  contention,  we  will  cite  examples  of  the  great 
age  that  Indians  of  today,  and  the  aborigines  as  well, 
have  attained  in  California.  Indians  150  years  old — 
proven  beyond  question — have  lived  in  this  state  in  the 
past  twenty  years,  and  if  we  could  arrive  at  the  age  of 

96 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  97 


the  early  Indians,  prior  to  the  advent  of  the  whites,  we 
might  find  them  nearer  200  years  old. 

One  of  the  most  noted  and  remarkable  instances  of 
longevity  among  our  modern  Indians,  whose  age  can  be 
authenticated,  is  Old  Gabriel,  of  Monterey,  California. 
As  near  as  can  be  computed  he  was  born  near  Monterey 
in  1739.  Father  Junipero  Serra,  when  he  landed  in  Mon- 
terey in  1770,  baptized  Gabriel,  who  was  then  31  years 
old  and  a  grandfather.  This  statement  is  substantiated 
by  the  records  of  the  San  Carlos  Mission,  and  corrobo- 
rated by  Zachariah — Gabriel's  son  by  a  fourth  wife — 
who  died  at  Gonzales,  Monterey  County,  in  1900,  aged 
114  years.  Father  Sorrentine,  Catholic  priest  at  Salinas, 
first  saw  Gabriel  in  1864,  and  he  was  more  than  100 
years  old  at  that  time. 

Old  Gabriel  was  a  strict  Catholic,  and  very  punctili- 
ous in  the  observance  of  his  religious  duties.  He  was  a 
light  eater,  never  used  intoxicating  liquors,  tobacco,  tea 
nor  coffee,  but  "was  fond  of  fruits  and  everything  sweet." 
He  was  small  and  sinewy,  and  in  his  prime  did  not  weigh 
more  than  150  pounds. 

Mr.  W.  S.  Johnson,  a  banker  at  Salinas,  told  the 
writer  in  1890  that  Old  Gabriel  lived  for  many  years 
on  his  farm,  and  had  a  saying  "that  a  man  dug  his  grave 
with  his  teeth" — in  other  words,  killed  himself  by  in- 
ordinate eating.  Mr.  Johnson  said  it  was  Gabriel's  in- 
variable custom,  when  indisposed,  to  fast  a  day  or  two, 
sometimes  three  or  four,  until  his  health  was  fully  re- 
stored. 

Gabriel  was  a  disbeliever  in  hydrotherapy,  and  a 
bath  to  him  was  a  thing  unknown.  He  delighted,  how- 
ever, in  a  sun  bath,  sitting  for  hours  daily  in  the  sun, 
which  in  a  measure  took  the  place  of  water  in  cleansing 


98  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

and  purifying  the  skin  by  evaporation  and  the  steriliz- 
ing action  of  the  sun's  rays. 

He  opened  up  the  pores  of  the  skin  by  twice  a  week 
scraping  himself  all  over  with  an  old  sheath  knife.  (A 
Mr.  Bass,  a  95-year-old  merchant,  of  remarkable  health, 
living  in  a  suburb  of  Cincinnati,  told  the  writer  in 
1884,  ^  that  he  never  took  a  bath  in  his  life,  but  each 
morning  on  arising  would  go  all  over  his  body  with  a 
stiff  flesh  brush.)  Father  Sorrentini,  of  Salinas,  pro- 
cured affidavits  from  four  old  people  who  testified  to 
Old  Gabriel's  great  age — 151 — and  these  with  his  pic- 
ture were  sent  to  Rome  and  hangs  now  in  the  Vatican, 
as  the  oldest  man  in  the  world.  He  could  thread  a 
needle  without  glasses  two  years  before  his  death.  His 
hair,  we  are  told,  had  much  of  its  original  color— black 
— in  it  to  the  last,  and  he  had  five  teeth.  An  autopsy 
was  made  and  his  liver  had  shrunk  to  one-third  its  nat- 
ural size  and  the  spleen  to  one-half.  Another  peculiarity 
was  that  the  cartilages  were  but  little  ossified. 

This  same  peculiarity  was  observed  in  old  Dr.  Parr, 
who  died  in  London  in  1635 — 152  years  old — when  Dr. 
Harvey  made  the  autopsy. 

Old  Gabriel  died  at  the  county  hospital  near  Salinas, 
Monterey  County,  California,  of  pneumonia,  March  18, 
1890,  151  years  old,  and  was  buried  at  Salinas.  We 
are  told  "he  ate  little,  avoided  meat  and  wine,  and  pre- 
ferred fruit  and  fish."  When  Old  Gabriel  was  a  neo- 
phyte he  was  taught  the  simple  life  by  Junipero  Serra 
—the  greatest  of  missionaries — and  the  rigid  following 
of  abstemious  and  temperate  habits  taught  him  by  the 
old  Spanish  priest,  was  the  secret  of  his  phenomenal 
longevity.  His  great  age  would  never  have  been  chron- 
icled had  he  lived  in  another  climate  than  California. 
Here  the  balmy  sunshine  and  almost  never  varying  tern- 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  99 

I  saw  an  old  Indian  in  the  Tulare  Valley  of  the 
perature  furnished  the  complement  necessary  to  the  ful- 
fillment of  a  century  and  a  half. 

In  1888  the  writer  was  in  Yuma,  California,  and 
there  saw  an  Indian  of  the  Yuma  tribe  121  years  old — 
as  given  by  the  old  men  of  his  race,  many  of  whom  were 
90  and  100  years  of  age.  So  great  was  his  virility  that 
he  had  recently  married  a  young  wife,  who  had  borne 
him  a  son. 

His  skin  was  like  a  board — thick  and  hard — and  his 
eye  showed  plainly  the  arcus  senilis — the  usual  accom- 
paniment of  great  age.  Brinton,  in  his  "American 
Race"  tells  of  the  food  they  ate:  "The  Yumas  were 
an  agricultural  people,  cultivating  large  fields  of  corn  and 
beans." 

The  reports  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Missions  of  Cali- 
fornia prior  to  1849  tell  us  of  great  numbers  of  Indians 
far  beyond  a  hundred. 

Dora  Di  Santos,  an  Indian  woman,  died  at  Santa 
Rosa  May  6,  1912,  106  years  old.  Living  with  her  was 
a  son  87  years  of  age.  Six  years  ago  she  celebrated  her 
hundredth  birthday,  which  was  attended  by  many  of  the 
pioneers  of  the  county. 

An  Indian  woman,  now  living — Mrs.  Maria  Wilson — 
at  Colusa,  is  108  years  old,  as  reported  to  us  from  the 
Indian  superintendent. 

Halley1  tells  us  that  in  1875  a  Mission  Indian,  named 
Justinia  Roxas,  died  in  San  Jose  at  the  advanced  age  of 
122  years,  being  born  in  1753. 

Bruno,  an  Indian  of  the  early  Missions,  died  in  1870, 
in  the  almshouse  at  San  Francisco,  aged  110  years. 

'History  of  Alameda  County— 1876— p.  22.    Wm.  Halley. 
'Reminiscences  of  a  Ranger — By  Major  Horace  Bell,  1881. 
P.  343. 


100  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

"Old  Dona  Ulalia"2  died  near  Visalia  in  1880,  at  the 
age  of  150  years. 

Tejon  tribe,  who  was  much  older  than  Dona  Ulalia.  He 
was  the  oldest-looking  human  being  I  ever  beheld.  When 
the  sun  was  warm,  the  Indians — who  were  very  kind  to 
him,  he  being  unable  to  walk — would  carry  him  out  in 
the  sun,  and  lay  him  on  deer  skins,  where  he  would 
remain  all  day.  He  was  probably  in  the  neighborhood 
of  180  years  old,  according  to  the  report  of  the  Indians 
who  had  charge  of  him. 

Saturnioni,  of  the  tribe  of  San  Buena  Ventura  In- 
dians, died  at  the  Ventura  County  Hospital  February 
28,  1912,  aged  104  years. 

Old  Sallie,  an  old  Indian  woman,  is  now  (1914J  liv- 
ing in  the  Butte  County  Hospital  at  Oroville,  128  years 
of  age.  She  has  lived  all  her  life  in  Feather  Canon. 

Maximo,*  the  Chief  of  the  Mokelko,  a  tribe  of  In- 
dians on  the  Mokelumne  River,  died  near  Stockton  in 
1890,  aged  108  years. 

Deputy  United  States  Marshal  R.  J.  Dominguezf  in 
1892,  in  quieting  a  land  title  in  San  Bernardino  County 
between  the  Southern  Pacific  R.  R.  and  the  Indians 
found  five  Indian  witnesses  in  the  Yuma  desert,  where 
the  temperature  was  120°  in  the  shade,  the  youngest  of 
which  was  75  and  the  oldest  was  133  years  old. 

Juan  Saberia  is  supposed  to  be  the  oldest  Indian 
alive  in  the  United  States.  He  was  12  years  old  when 
the  Mission  San  Gabriel  was  built  (1771),  which  would 
make  him  133  years  old. 

Another  Indian,  Juan  Cahuilla,  is  115  years  old. 
Harabisio  Cubazon,  the  chief  of  the  tribe,  is  80  years 

*History  of  San  Joaquin  County,  P.  36,  1890. 
fOld  California  Days— James  Steele,  P.  227,  1892. 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  101 

old.    He  is  the  son  of  the  old  chief,  who  died  four  years 
before  (1888)  at  the  age  of  140. 

Francisco  Apache  is  105  years  old.  They  live  in  the 
Yuma  desert,  under  the  mesquita  trees  on  pechete,  or 
the  bean  of  the  tree. 

Caskibel,J  and  old  Indian,  is  living  near  Healdsburg, 
over  100  years  old  (1889). 

Ochopolth,  Granny  Mason,  of  the  Siwash  Indian 
tribe,  died  in  1909,  aged  113  years. 

"The  age  attained,"  Col.  Albert  Evans*  tells  us,  "by 
the  native  Spanish  American,  and  usually  part  Indian, 
inhabitants  of  this  coast  is  truly  marvelous. 

"I  never  knew  but  one  of  them  to  die,  and  he  might 
have  lived  to  a  green  old  age  had  he  not  been  knocked 
down  and  run  over  by  a  runaway  flour  mill  truck  team 
on  Pine  street,  San  Francisco,  in  1868.  He  was  104 
years  old  when  he  was  prematurely  cut  off. 

"Cimon  Avillos,  recently  (1897)  living  at  Todos, 
Santos  Bay,  Lower  California,  was  one  of  the  military 
guards  when  Padre  Junipero  Serra  raised  the  cross  of 
the  Mission  San  Diego  in  July,  1769.  This  old  con- 
quistador had  been  a  soldier  in  the  Spanish  army  sev- 
eral years  before  this  event,  so  that  his  age  today  (1897) 
cannot  be  less  than  152  years." 

At  Pescadero  the  claim  to  being  the  "oldest  in- 
habitant" lies  between  Don  Salvator  Mosquito,  a  Mission 
Indian,  and  Senor  Don  Felipe  Armas,  a  Californian  of 
Spanish  parentage.  Armas  remembers  that  when  King 
Kamehameha  of  Hawaii,  in  1811,  found  that  the  cattle 
which  had  grown  wild  in  the  islands  had  become  an  un- 
bearable nuisance  and  sent  over  to  this  country  for 
vaqueros  to  kill  them  off,  and  he — Armas — was  selected 

"A.  la  California— Col.  Albert  Evans,  1897,  P.  68. 
$  History  of  Sonoma  County— Hon.  Geo.  A.  Johnson,  P.  212. 


102  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

as  one  of  the  party.  He  was  then,  he  said,  35  years  old, 
being  born  in  1776.  He  was  alive  in  1897  and  121  years 
old. 

Chief  Kahotium,  102  years  old,  of  the  Pima  tribe  in 
Southern  California,  offered  his  services  to  President 
Wilson,  November  1,  1913,  to  fight  the  Mexicans.  De- 
spite his  age  he  is  strong  and  vigorous. 

"Weneeslao  Garcia,*  an  Indian  over  100  years  old, 
and  who  fought  with  the  Mexican  troops  in  the  second 
battle  of  Tia  Juana,  arrived  here  today  from  the  South. 
Garcia  was  a  regular  soldier  of  the  Mexican  Army  in 
Lower  California  during  the  insurrection/' 

We  discover  that  the  nut,  maize  and  bean  eating  In- 
dians are  longer  lived,  while  the  meat-eating  Indians  are 
all  short  lived. 

Brinton,f  speaking  of  the  meat-eating  Pawnees  of  the 
Missouri  and  Mississippi  Valleys,  says: 

"That  longevity  among  the  Pawnees  was  rare,  and 
few  of  either  sex  reached  the  age  of  60." 

Catling  who  is  the  greatest  authority  we  have  on  the 
Aborigines,  says :  "The  Indians  in  their  primitive  state, 
are  all  temperate  and  teetotallers.  Not  till  after  the 
white  man  came  into  their  midst  did  they  become  affected 
with  the  vices  of  the  civilized  race — and  retrograde  and 
become  short  lived. 

"The  meat-eating  Indians  are  more  bloodthirsty  than 
the  nut-eating  Indians,  and  do  not  live  so  long." 

History  is  unanimous  in  telling  us  that  the  early 
California  Indians  live  longer  by  seventy-five  years  than 
the  Indians  of  any  other  part  of  the  United  States.  We 
can  only  account  for  this  increased  length  of  life  by  the 

*San  Diego  paper,  Nov.  9,  1911. 

tThe  American  Race— Daniel  G.  Brinton,  P.  11-95. 

tThe  American  Indian,  P.  23. 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  103 

pure  equable  climate  of  California,  where  an  outdoor 
life  can  be  lived  from  January  to  June  and  from  June 
to  January,  and  to  the  nut  and  maize  diet,  for  meat  un- 
questionably shortens  life,  not  only  among  the  Indians, 
but  also  among  the  whites,  as  we  shall  later  show. 

Hutchins*  tells  us  "that  the  principal  article  of  diet 
of  the  early  Indians  of  California,  are  pine  nuts,  acorns 
and  out  of  the  latter  they  make  bread  or  mush." 

In  cold  countries  meat  seems  to  be  a  necessity  to 
furnish  food  (carbon)  for  the  body,  and  it  is  a  ques- 
tion, easy  to  propound,  but  difficult  to  answer,  which  it 
is  that  shortens  life,  a  meat  diet  or  the  cold  climate,  com- 
pelling an  indoor  life,  or  both. 

Old  Gabriel  151,  Dona  Ulalia  150,  Chief  Cabazon  140, 
the  Tejon  180,  among  the  California  Indians,  whose  food 
consisted  of  nuts  and  maize,  and  among  the  whites  noted 
for  longevity  we  have  Old  Thomas  Parr,  the  Shropshire 
peasant,  152,  and  Pierre  Zortay,  the  Hungarian  goat 
herder,  185,  who  lived  on  milk,  cheese  and  vegetables, 
are  examples  of  what  a  non-meat  eating  diet  will  do. 

Grmnell  tells  usf  "that  the  Indians  east  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  whose  diet  was  chiefly  meat,  are  very  short 
lived." 

To  illustrate  the  perpetually  mild  climate  of  Cali- 
fornia, where  the  aborigines  lived  throughout  the  year, 
absolutely  nude,  Mr.  Halley*  relates  the  following  an- 
ecdote :  "The  old  Indian,  Chief  Napa,  from  whom  Napa 
County  is  named,  paid  a  visit  to  General  Vallejo  one 
cold  day,  wearing  nothing  but  a  coat  of  war  paint.  'Are 
you  not  cold?'  asked  General  Vallejo,  'with  no  covering 
on  your  body  such  a  day  as  this?'  'Is  not  your  face 

*In  the  Heart  of  the  Sierras— J.  M.  Hutchins,  1888,  P.  423. 
tThe  Story  of  the  Indian— Geo.  Bird  Grinnell,  1895.  P.  254. 


104  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


Powers  tells  us  in  "The  California  Indian"  "that 
they  lived  largely  on  vegetables  and  nuts,  and  as  athletes 
were  superior  and  were  a  healthy  and  long  lived  race." 
cold?'  asked  the  old  Indian,  in  reply.  'I  never  make  a 
practice  of  covering  my  face  for  protection  against 
cold/  replied  the  General,  'it  is  not  necessary.'  'Well, 
Napa's  body  all  face,  and  want  no  covering — ugh,'  re- 
plied the  Indian,  who  made  his  point  tell." 

Father  Ubach,f  has  known  a  number  of  Indians  in 
Lower  California,  who  were  employed  in  building  the 
San  Diego  Mission  (1769),  a  century  before  he  took 
charge  of  this  Mission,  and  their  ages  (many  of  them 
were  still  living  in  1891,  at  the  Indian  village  of  Capitan 
Grande)  must  be  from  145  to  150  years  of  age. 

The  California  Aborigines  were  infinitely  superior  to 
their  descendants  who  had  become  contaminated  by  the 
advent  of  the  whites.  The  coming  of  the  Caucasian 
brought  drunkenness,  dishonesty,  laziness  and  syphilis 
— all  of  which  made  them  dissolute,  inferior  and  short 
lived. 

In  1849  a  traveler*  journeying  through  Lower  Cali- 
fornia tells  us  of  the  Indian  in  his  primeval  condition. 
"To  us  it  was  a  rare  sight  to  be  thrown  in  the  midst  of 
what  is  termed  wild  Indians.  They  surpassed  many  of 
the  Christian  nations  in  agriculture,  which  was  carried 
on  by  irrigation,  fell  little  behind  them  in  useful  arts  and 
immeasurably  before  them  in  honesty  and  virtue.  Corn, 
beans,  melons,  sugar  cane  and  cotton  are  cultivated  by 
irrigation.  We  saw  many  Indians  far  beyond  a  hundred, 
longevity  being  the  rule  and  not  the  exception." 

Dr.  J.  M.  Gunn  in  his  "History  of  California"  says : 
'The  Indians  of  California,  when  Viscaino  in  1607  ar- 

*History  of  Alameda  County,  1876— Halley. 
fOur  Italy— Charles  Dudley  Warner,  P.  60. 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  105 

rived  in  Monterey,  were  a  noble,  temperate,  honorable 
and  handsome  race — and  were  not  the  degraded  crea- 
tures that  some  modern  writers  have  pictured." 
How  happy  were  these  early  California  Indians  under 
the  tutelage  of  Father  Junipero   Serra.     "In  the  lush 
harvest  fields  of  Monterey  their  swinging  sythes  rang 
blithely  upon  the  mountain  side,  in  the  dream  kissed  val- 
leys  rose  the  song  of  the  Indian  herder,  as  he  guarded 
the  magically  increasing  flock." 
baum,  Austin,  Texas,  1849. 

Bancroft*  writes:  "Of  the  many  hundred  Indians 
I  have  seen  there  was  not  one  who  still  observed  the 
original  mode  of  life,  that  had  not  a  sweet  breath.  Un- 
civilized, they  ate  their  food  cold,  and  at  dawn  of  day 
they  arise  and  plunge  in  the  river."  This  shows  perfect 
physical  health.  How  different  from  his  descendants,  as 
described  by  modern  writers ! 

The  Mountain  Indians,  and  the  early  Iroquois  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley  were  meat  eaters,  meat  being  their 
chief  food,  and  were  a  bloodthirsty  and  short  lived  race. 

The  Nez  Perce  of  Idaho  and  the  Apache  of  Ari- 
zona, the  Modoc  of  Northern  California  and  Oregon, 
and  the  Sioux  of  Dakota  were  all  heavy  meat  eaters, 
and  were  the  most  warlike  of  their  race,  and  writers 
inform  us  that  few  lived  beyond  60  years  of  age. 

The  Iroquois  of  today,  where  they  observe  the  sim- 
ple habits  of  their  ancestors,  are  still  long  lived.  Pablo 
Moreno,  an  old  Indian  at  Sonora,  Mexico,  a  similar  cli- 
mate to  California,  being  across  the  border,  died  De- 
cember 29,  1911,  127  years  old. 

Charles  Dudley  Warner  tells  us  that  Dr.  Palmer  has 
a  photograph  of  an  old  squaw  whom  he  estimates  at  126 
years.  When  he  (Dr.  Palmer)  visited  her,  he  saw  her 

*The  California  Indians— H.  H.  Bancroft,  VI.  P.  341. 


106  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


put  6  watermelons  in  a  blanket,  tie  it  up,  and  carry  it 
on  her  back  for  2  miles. 

On  May  11,  1912,  Dora  di  Santos,  an  Indian  woman, 
died  near  Sebastopol,  Cal.,  aged  106.  She  was  living 
with  a  son  87  years  old. 

At  the  Mission  of  San  Tomas,  in  Lower  California, 
is  still  ( 1891 )  living  an  Indian,  bent  and  wrinkled,  whose 
age  is  computed  to  be  140  years.  Though  blind  and 
naked,  he  is  still  active,  and  daily  goes  to  the  beach  and 
carries  up  driftwood. 

Dr.  Remondino,  of  San  Diego,  tells  us  of  an  old  In- 
dian "who  is  living  (1891)  on  Philip  Crossthwaite's 
ranch,  who  mounts  his  horse  and  rides  over  the  country 
daily.  From  a  conversation  I  had  with  Father  Ubach,  I 
learned  that  the  man's  age  is  perfectly  authenticated, 
and  he  is  more  than  118  years  old.  These  very  old  In- 
dians are  strictly  temperate  and  abstemious,  the  diet  con- 
sisting of  acorns,  flour  and  water." 

The  deductions  we  draw  in  conclusion,  after  having 
found  the  Aborigines  of  California  living  from  125  to 
175,  that  their  remarkable  longevity  is  due  to  two  causes 
— the  climate  and  their  food. 

The  mild,  genial  and  healthful  climate  of  our  Golden 
State,  permitting  an  open  air  existence,  combined  with 
a  food  of  nuts,  beans  and  maize,  have  given  the  In- 
dians of  California  a  truly  marvelous  longevity — longev- 
ity that  cannot  be  found  among  mankind,  savage  or  civil- 
ized, in  any  other  country  in  the  world. 

There  is  no  reason  to  doubt,  if  the  white  race  of 
California,  who  has  usurped  the  lands  of  these  long- 
lived  Indians,  will  observe  the  simplicity  in  diet  followed 
by  his  dusky  predecessors,  together  with  the  hygienic 
and  dietetic  rules  of  which  he  is  theoretically  conversant, 
a  longevity  unparallelled  in  history  will  be  his  legitimate 
birthright. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Longevity  Among  the  White  Race  of  California. 
More  Centenarians  Than  in  Any  Other  State  or  Country — 
Thirty-five  Centenarians  in  San  Francisco— Captain  Dia- 
mond 116  Years  Old — Mrs.  Howard  Smith,  108  Years 
Old,  Running  a  Poultry  Ranch — Mrs.  Iley  Hill  Came  to 
California  in  1850  With  Consumption,  Is  Now  Well  and 
104  Years  Old—Two  Hundred  Centenarians  in  California 
—Climate  the  Secret  of  Their  Long  Life. 

Can  we  not  reasonably  and  logically  conclude  that  if 
the  semi-tropical  and  uniform  climate  of  California  pro- 
duces phenomenally  long  life  in  the  trees,  and  Indians, 
it  will  under  equally  favorable  conditions,  produce  lon- 
gevity in  the  white  race?  The  test  of  great  age  in  Cali- 
fornia, in  the  white  race,  cannot  be  made  as  with  the 
Indian,  because  his  advent  really  only  dates  from  1849 
— on  the  discovery  of  gold.  A  child  born  in  1849  would 
be  only  66  years  old  at  this  time  (1915).  Yet,  if  we 
have  not  had  time  to  grow  a  centenarian  we  have  them 
developed  here  from  among  the  middle  aged  men  and 
women  who  came  here  in  the  early  fifties.  Notwithstand- 
ing that  a  great  percentage  of  our  immigration  has  been 
valetudinarians  in  quest  of  health,  California  can  show 
more  centenarians,  nonogenarians  and  octogenarians  than 
any  other  State  in  the  Union,  and  possibly  more,  pro 
rata,  than  can  be  found  in  any  other  country  on  the 
globe.  The  uniformity  and  unchangeableness  of  the  cli- 
mate of  California,  of  which  we  have  written,  produced 

107 


108  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


by  the  lofty  ranges  of  the  Sierras  on  the  East  and  the 
warm  North  Pacific  current,  1,200  miles  wide,  laving  our 
shores  with  its  tepid  waters  on  the  west,  make  this  an 
ideal  climate — superior  to  any  other  known  to  the  world. 
To  prove  this,  we  have  only  to  look  at  the  marvelous 
life  of  our  Gigantea  Sequoia,  5,500  to  8,000  years  old, 
and  still  in  their  prime,  and  to  scores  of  Indians  who 
have  lived  nearly  two  centuries  and  the  thousands  of  our 
white  race  who  have  outlived  by  many  years  the  Bible 
age  of  three  score  and  ten. 

A  cold  variable  climate  shortens  life  in  man  and 
tree — freezing  and  thawing — the  extremes  of  heat  and 
cold  cannot  be  conducive  to  a  healthy  nor  a  long  life. 
For  fifty  years  past  our  climate  is  unchanged,  and  judg- 
ing from  the  Gigantea  Sequoia,  it  has  remained  the  same 
for  fifty  centuries  past. 

Immigrants  afflicted  with  tuberculosis  arrive  in  our 
State  by  the  thousands  yearly,  and  the  germs  they  dis- 
seminate inoculate  our  native  born,  and  the  disease,  al- 
though not  indigenous,  seems  to  the  casual  observer  to 
have  its  origin  here,  when  it  is  imported. 

The  State  Board  of  Health  says :  "The  heavy  mor- 
tality from  tuberculosis  in  California  is  due  largely  to 
immigration  of  people  so  badly  afflicted  with  the  disease 
that  they  cannot  recover  under  the  most  favorable  cli- 
matic conditions,  though  they  may  lengthen  their  lives 
somewhat  by  coming  to  this  land  of  sunshine.  Seventy 
per  cent  of  the  tuberculosis  victims  are  imported/'  the 
other  thirty  per  cent,  many  medical  men  believe,  received 
their  inoculation  from  the  infected  immigrant.  The 
United  States  Mortality  Statistics  of  1908  says:  "Cali- 
fornia suffers  unduly,  in  comparison  with  other  States, 
from  the  fact  that  it  is  a  health  resort,  and  that  a  very 
considerable  proportion  of  the  mortality  assigned  to  it, 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  109 

on  the  basis  of  deaths  actually  occurring,  is  due  to  the 
mortality  among  recent  residents." 

Advice  regarding  any  subject  is  valued  from  the 
knowledge  the  giver  possesses.  If  a  beggar  advices  you 
how  to  make  money  you  turn  away,  but  if  Carnegie  or 
Pierpont  Morgan  discourses  on  finance  you  listen.  If 
a  man,  not  yet  past  middle  life,  with  one  foot  in  the 
grave,  tells  you  how  to  eat  and  care  for  yourself  to  live 
long,  it  falls  on  an  unresponsive  ear;  but  if  centenarians 
like  Cornaro,  Sir  Moses  Montefiore,  Mrs.  Iley  Lawson 
Hill,  Mrs.  Electa  Kennedy  or  Captain  Diamond,  tell  us 
how  they  lived,  what  they  ate,  and  their  daily  habits,  it 
arrests  our  attention  and  we  become  interested.  When 
we  listen  to  the  vital  subjects  discussed,  we  want  to  have 
the  theories  substantiated  by  facts,  and  certainly  longev- 
ity is  one  of  the  vital  questions  of  this  age,  an  age  that 
has  done  more  to  raise  the  average  length  of  life  than 
any  that  has  preceded  it.  The  researches  of  medical 
men  in  the  past  two  centuries  have  stamped  out  the 
plagues  and  epidemics  that  hitherto  have  been  the  terror 
of  mankind. 

Climate  is  overwhelmingly  the  strongest  factor  in 
longevity.  It  seems  that  a  miracle  has  been  wrought  by 
the  forces  of  nature  in  the  perfection  of  our  California 
climate.  The  long  life  of  our  trees,  Indians  and  whites 
is  an  unchallenged  proof  of  our  claim. 

This  country,  being  the  country  of  romantic  adven- 
ture, on  the  fringe  of  the  western  world,  where  the  con- 
fluent streams  of  all  nations  mingle,  where  princely  for- 
tunes spring  up  in  a  decade,  where  more  alcoholic  liquors 
are  drunk,  where  there  are  more  insane  and  suicides, 
conditions  which  prevail  in  all  gold  producing  countries, 
where  men  are  keyed  to  the  breaking  point  of  nerve  ten- 
sion, and  yet  handicapped  by  these  exciting  and  health 


110  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


destroying  elements,  we  have  more  old  people  in  very  ad- 
vanced life,  pro  rata,  than  in  any  other  country  we  know 
of  in  all  the  earth. 

It  is  the  climate,  of  all  the  world,  most  favorable  to 
longevity,  and  had  we  conservative  conditions,  that  pre- 
vail in  long  settled  communities,  we  would  have  cen- 
tenarians as  plentiful  as  we  have  oranges  on  our  trees. 
Here  are  some  facts  we  will  now  present,  and  facts  are 
stubborn  things : 

The  California  State  Board  of  Health  gives  the  death 
rate  in  the  State  in  1909  as  13.4  for  every  1,000  in- 
habitants, making  the  average  length  of  life  in  the  State 
of  California  74  years. 

In  many  of  the  counties  of  the  State,  the  average 
length  of  life  is  far  greater.  Imperial  County  has  only 
3.1  deaths  in  every  1,000;  Mono  County,  3.4  deaths  in 
every  1,000,  by  far  the  lowest  death  rate  in  any  other 
county  in  the  United  States  or  in  any  other  country 
in  the  world,  and  the  highest  average  length  of  life. 

In  Calcutta  the  average  length  of  life  is 20  years 

In  Dublin  the  average  length  of  life  is 25  years 

In  London  the  average  length  of  life  is 66  years 

In  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  the  average  length  of  life  is.  .66  years 
In  Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  the  average  length  of  life  is... 71  years 
In  Berkeley,  Cal.,  the  average  length  of  life  is 94  years 

While  the  average  of  Berkeley  may  be  somewhat 
high  on  account  of  the  university  students,  Los  Angeles 
is  correspondingly  low  because  it  is  colonized  by  invalids. 

To  show  what  sanitation  will  do,  the  average  length 
of  life  in  Havana,  prior  to  American  occupation,  was 
20  years.  It  is  now  50  years,  but  the  climate  of  Cali- 
fornia has  done  better — it  has  taken  a  consumptive  im- 
migrant who  arrives  here  at  50,  dying,  cures  her,  and 
she  is  living  today,  105  years  old,  and  in  excellent  health. 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  Ill 

Mrs.  Electa  Kennedy,  of  Healdsburg,  105  years  of 
age,  and  Mrs.  Iley  Lawson  Hill,  of  Lakeport,  104  years 
of  age,  both  living  (1914)  and  in  excellent  health,  we 
cite,  and  could  cite  scores  of  other  centenarians  to  cor- 
roborate the  wonderful  effects  of  our  climate  in  the  re- 
juvenation of  the  diseased  immigrant — in  promoting  a 
phenomenal  longevity. 

Mrs.  Susan  Mills,  founder  of  Mills  College,  86  years 
of  age,  and  still  (1912)  an  active  woman,  thoroughly 
conversant  and  interested  in  all  the  issues  of  the  day, 
registered  as  a  voter  recently,  realizing  the  predictions 
of  her  father  years  ago,  "that  women  would  one  day 
vote  and  some  of  his  family  would  live  to  see  it."  There 
is  something  commandingly  beautiful  in  the  Californian 
— either  the  native  or  adopted  son — in  defending  his 
State  against  all  onslaughts  against  its  reputation.  To 
speak  disparagingly  of  California  is  taken  as  a  personal 
insult  and  resented  with  the  same  fervor.  The  native 
son  sometimes  exhibits  jealousy  towards  his  imported 
brother — when  the  latter  disdainfully  replies  "/  am  the 
more  loyal  Californian  of  the  two,  for  you  were  born 
here,  and  couldn't  help  it,  while  I  came  here  of  my  own 
volition." 

How  we  fight  for  dear  old  San  Francisco,  resting 
like  a  jewel  on  the  shore  of  a  sun-kissed  sea.  Earth- 
quake and  fire  could  not  drive  us  away,  not  even  perma- 
nently to  Oakland  or  Alameda — both  charming  trans- 
bay  cities,  and  how  often  have  we  heard  the  wag  say 
'7  would  rather  be  a  lamp  post  in  San  Francisco  than  a 
millionaire  in  Oakland" — which  only  shows  how  we  ap- 
preciate our  beloved  city — a  city  already  greater  than 
Tyre  and  Sidon  of  old — Asiatic  cities  that  for  centuries 
ruled  the  destinies  of  the  Mediterranean — while  San 
Francisco  with  her  mighty  ships,  laden  with  their  com- 


112  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

mercial  cargoes,  now  with  the  completion  of  the  Panama 
Canal,  rules  the  seven  oceans. 

This  warm  genial  climate,  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  where 
life  runs  easy,  and  money  made  without  effort,  where 
robust  health  is  stamped  on  every  brow,  and  an  un- 
paralleled longevity  is  assured — such  favorable  condi- 
tions beget  a  generosity  unique  and  unknown  elsewhere. 
San  Francisco  has  an  undeserved  reputation  of  being  the 
"wickedest  city  on  the  globe" — but  while  not  being  re- 
ligious in  the  sense  of  a  church-going  people,  its  Chris- 
tian charity  is  boundless  and  unsurpassed. 

Dr.  Charles  F.  Aked,  an  eloquent  minister  from  Lon- 
don and  New  York,  recently  arrived,  charmingly  gives 
his  experience: 

"I  came  to  San  Francisco  expecting  to  find  it  the 
wickedest  city  in  the  world.  I  had  been  led  to  expect 
— evidently  by  those  who  knew  nothing  about  the  place 
— that  it  was  a  sort  of  a  Hell  on  Earth.  I  have  found 
it  an  earthly  Paradise.  Gay?  Frivolous?  Certainly; 
but  that's  not  wickedness.  To  call  a  city  wicked  you 
must  have  wicked  men  for  its  citizens." 

Honesty  is  a  pre-eminent  characteristic  of  the  men 
of  San  Francisco. 

They  are  clean  souled,  strong  hearted,  pure-minded 
men;  virile  and  glad  and  enthusiastic  in  their  play  and 
work.  And  why?  Because  the  climate  makes  them  so. 
You've  got  to  be  clean  souled;  you've  got  to  be  strong 
hearted;  you've  got  to  be  pure-minded  under  this  con- 
stant and  uninterrupted  purity  of  air.  You  can't  help 
being  glad  and  enthusiastic  in  whatever  undertaking 
you  pursue  and  in  this  wondrous  atmosphere  of  light 
and  warmth,  that  invigorates  in  the  morning,  rejuvenates 
at  noon  and  helps  you  to  sleep  soundly  at  night. 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  113 

That  accounts  for  the  spirit  of  the  men  and  women 
of  San  Francisco.  Miss  Kenney,  a  cultured  English 
visitor,  recently  said:  "Your  men  here  are  all  workers 
and  all  thinkers,  and  for  that  reason  you  are  bound  to 
get  a  higher  standard  of  living,  of  wages,  and  of  civic 
life." 

We  challenge  any  immigrant — it  matters  not  from 
what  country  he  comes — to  enter  our  hospitable  land 
and  remain  with  us  a  single  year,  and  be  contented  else- 
where afterwards.  San  Francisco  and  California  need 
no  panegyric  from  us — every  visitor  is  a  walking  lauda- 
tor  to  the  fairest  city  and  most  beautiful  land  the  sun 
ever  shone  upon. 

''Suburban  Life"  an  Eastern  publication,  gives  this 
well-deserved  encomium  on  our  climate,  which  we  can 
take  as  a  common  estimate  of  how  our  visitors  appre- 
ciate, what  to  them  is  bewitchingly  unique. 

"With  an  average  temperature  of  62  degrees,  with 
golf  and  other  April  sports  every  day  in  the  year,  and 
with  the  beauties  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  on  the  one  side, 
and  the  mountains  on  the  other,  California  forms  an 
ideal  place  for  the  mid-winter  vacationist  or  the  tourist 
who  is  seeking  a  change  from  the  biting  winds  and 
blizzards  of  the  East  and  Middle  West." 

Superintendent  Hyatt,  speaking  of  mental  growth  in 
California,  says : 

"The  mental  growth  comes  from  the  same  causes  as 
the  remarkable  physical  growth  of  California  youth. 
Almost  without  exception  California  children  are  larger, 
taller  and  stronger  than  their  Eastern  cousins. 

"It  is  probably  the  result  of  a  longer  growing  season 
in  California — the  temptation  for  outdoor  live,  and  abun- 
dance of  fruit  and  vegetables  throughout  the  year." 

United  States   Statistics  of   1911   show  that  babies 


114  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

thrive  well  here — infant  mortality  is  only  eighty-three 
per  cent  in  1,000,  while  the  general  average  in  other 
States  is  112  per  cent  in  1,000. 

Dr.  H.  H.  Sheffield,  of  Berkeley,  who  had  two  sick- 
ly babies  he  brought  to  this  State,  that  have  developed 
into  two  young  women  supreme  in  all  women's  sports, 
due  to  the  pure  air  of  California.  He  says  of  them : 
"My  daughters  have  simply  lived  naturally.  They  do 
not  eat  meat,  drink  tea  or  coffee,  nor  wear  corsets. 
They  have  the  coast  championship  in  swimming,  base 
ball  and  long  distance  running." 

Professor  Walter  E.  Magee,  head  of  the  physical 
culture  department  of  the  University  of  California,  found 
that  the  California  girls  not  only  out-measure  their  East- 
ern sisters  in  almost  every  point,  but  that  they  approach 
very  nearly  to  the  type  of  perfect  feminine  form  as 
formulated  by  Raphael,  Leonardo  da  Vinci  and  Albrecht 
Durer  centuries  ago. 

Prof.  Wm.  G.  Reed,  lecturing  before  the  University 
of  California  on  "Our  Climate"  says: 

"The  temperature  is  about  the  same  throughout  the 
State,  varying  not  more  than  10  degrees.  At  Eureka 
on  the  north  it  average  51  degrees,  55  degrees  at  San 
Francisco,  and  61  at  San  Diego. 

'The  equality  is  due  to  the  influence  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  which  maintains  a  temperature  of  55  degrees 
throughout  the  year." 

All  animal  and  plant  life  to  thrive  and  reach  its  max- 
imum of  perfection  must  be  in  a  location  adapted  to 
it,  and  for  want  of  a  better  name  we  call  the  climate 
or  location  that  produces  this  highest  development,  its 
"habitat."  They  must  have  the  vivifying  effect  of  the 
sun's  rays — and  nowhere  in  the  world  do  we  have  more 
balmy,  sunny  days  than  in  California. 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  115 

The  outdoor  life  here  is  the  charm  of  existence. 
Not  a  day  in  the  year  but  that  you  can  enjoy  life  in  the 
open  and  insuffllate  your  lungs  with  pure  unadulterated 
air — air  thoroughly  sterilized  by  the  salt  laden  vapors 
of  the  Pacific — which  sweep  across  the  State  from  the 
sea  to  the  Sierras. 

Though  California  is  the  world's  sanitarium,  since 
its  occupancy  by  the  white  race,  and  handicapped  as  she 
has  been  by  the  yearly  influx  of  thousands  of  invalids 
from  all  other  countries,  in  1909,  our  death  rate,*  as 
we  have  stated,  was  only  13.4  per  cent  for  each  1,000  of 
our  inhabitants. 

Official  German  statistics  give  seven  thousand  cen- 
tenarians in  Europe  with  its  400,000,000  population,  or 
one  centenarian  to  every  57,000  of  its  inhabitants.  Cali- 
fornia has  approximately  400  centenarians,  with  2,400,- 
000  people,  or  one  centenarian  in  every  6,000,  and  4,000 
over  ninety  years  old. 

George  D.  Leslie,  statistician  of  the  California  State 
Board  of  Health  in  San  Francisco,  writes :  '7  will  say 
that  there  is  statistical  support  to  your  statement  that 
people  live  longer  here  in  California  than  in  other  States." 

The  reasons  for  our  greater  longevity  are  undoubtedly 
climate,  which  invites  an  outdoor  life  the  year  round ; 
and  less  meat,  on  account  of  our  semi-tropical  climate, 
and  more  of  a  vegetable  and  fruit  diet. 

There  are  thirty-five  persons  in  San  Francisco  100 
years  of  age  and  over,  and  one  at  Crocker's  Old 
People's  Home  118  years  old,  a  woman  in  San  Diego 
now  living  125  years  old,  and  an  Indian  180  years  old 
near  Visalia.  Col.  G.  E.  D.  Diamond,  who  published 
sixteen  years  ago  a  book,  "How  to  Live  to  Be  100," 
lives  at  Crocker's  Old  People's  Home,  2507  Pine  street, 

^Report  of  State  Board  of  Health,  1910,    P  86. 


116  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

this  city.  He  was  born  in  Plymouth,  Mass.,  May  1, 
1796.  The  writer  has  personally  known  him  for  twenty- 
two  years.  He  was  then  96  and  today  he  seems  no 
older. 

We  have  examined  carefully  his  credentials  that  go 
to  prove  his  great  age,  and  have  found  nothing  to  lead 
us  to  discredit  him.  Twenty  years  ago  he  showed  the 
writer  an  old  New  York  paper  of  1815 — he  had  pre- 
served, giving  an  account  of  a  steamboat  accident  on  the 
Hudson  River  of  a  mail  packet  plying  between  New 
York  and  Albany,  in  which  the  names  of  lost  and  saved 
were  published  and  the  name  of  G.  E.  D.  Diamond  was 
among  the  rescued.  He  was  at  that  time  19  years  of 
age.  It  was  our  intention  to  incorporate  in  this  book 
an  extract  from  this  New  York  City  paper,  but  it  was 
burned  in  the  great  fire  of  1906. 

Capt.  Diamond  came  to  San  Francisco  January  1, 
1877,  38  years  ago,  at  the  age  of  81,  and  has  lived 
here  since. 

He  attributes  his  great  age  to  a  vegetable  diet,  olive 
oil,  which  he  takes  daily,  and  says  he  has  not  touched 
meat  in  80  years.  He  takes  a  cold  sponge  bath  each 
morning.  He  inherited  somewhat  his  longevity  from  his 
father,  Joseph  Diamond,  who  died  in  Huntsville,  Ala., 
in  1866  at  the  age  of  104,  which  latter  we  have  taken 
occasion  to  verify. 

Mrs.  Electa  Kennedy,  103  years  old,  writes  us  from 
Healdsburg,  California,  November  13,  1911:  "I  am 
not  a  very  great  meat  eater,  use  very  little  tea  or  coffee, 
have  always  been  used  to  home  cooking  and  have  al- 
ways been  regular  in  my  habits.  I  was  born  in  Derby, 
Vermont,  January  29,  1809,  and  in  1852  came  to  Cali- 
fornia for  my  health.  The  doctors  in  Vermont  all  said 
I  had  consumption.  I  crossed  the  plains  in  ox-carts  in 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  117 

1852,  and  rode  1,400  miles  on  mule  back.    I  am  now  102 
years  old  and  in  excellent  health." 

Mrs.  Kennedy  registered  at  Santa  Rosa  in  1911  as 
a  voter,  and  while  there  someone  asked  her  if  she  would 
like  to  visit  Luther  Burbank,  it  being  the  Floral  Wizard's 
home,  and  she  replied:  "Yes,  if  he  could  make  some- 
thing new  out  of  me,  as  he  does  the  fruits  and  flowers" 
She  is  still  (1915)  living  and  is  now  105  years  old. 

We  have  observed  an  almost  universal  fact  that  when 
invalids  even  are  transplanted  from  other  States  or  coun- 
tries to  California  they  become  rejuvenated,  and  live  to 
an  advanced  age. 

Timothy  J.  O'Connor  lives  in  Noe  Valley,  this  city, 
and  is  97  years  of  age,  strong  and  hearty. 

To  illustrate  the  vitality  found  among  even  the  aged 
in  this  climate,  we  will  call  attention  to  Robert  Jones, 
of  Grass  Valley,  who  on  February  12,  1912,  celebrated 
his  94th  birthday  on  Massachusetts  Hill  by  dancing  a 
clog  dance  for  the  entertainment  of  his  family. 

His  step  is  still  light  and  elastic,  and  he  says  that  for 
at  least  six  more  birthdays  he  will  go  through  the  same 
performance. 

Long  after  Captain  Diamond  of  this  city  had  passed 
his  100th  year,  he  was  connected  with  an  athletic  club 
here,  and  did  gymnastic  work,  that  few  of  our  young 
men  could  equal,  and  one  night  he  attended  a  public 
ball  when  110  years  old  and  danced  most  of  the  night 
with  an  athletic  young  lady  of  16. 

Frank  and  Joseph  Lewis,  of  Oakland,  brothers,  98 
and  95  respectively,  tell  us  the  secret  of  long  life  is 
plenty  of  sleep.  They  go  to  bed  at  3  p.  m.  and  arise 
at  10  a.  m.,  making  19  hours  a  day,  and  lastly  by  "not 
being  pestered  by  a  wife." 

Mrs.  Jane  Wood,  aged  97,  lives  at  1139  Fifty-third 


118  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

street,  Oakland ;  born  in  England,  but  has  lived  here  for 
the  past  fifty  years. 

On  January  30,  1913,  John  Acre,  who  came  from 
Portugal  to  California,  eighty  years  ago,  died  at  his 
home  in  San  Pablo  at  the  age  of  100  years. 

Judge  John  Curry  died  near  Dixon,  Cal.,  December 
19,  1912,  aged  99  years. 

Mrs.  Gutmede  Celis,  said  to  have  been  the  oldest 
woman  in  California,  died  last  night  (Sept.  10,  1912) 
at  the  home  of  her  grandson,  Louis  Celis,  1419  Ninth 
street,  Richmond,  Cal.  She  was  106  years  old. 

Mrs.  Celis  came  to  California  in  1842,  before  the  dis- 
covery of  gold.  She  was  born  December  20,  1806,  in 
Mexico  City.  With  her  husband  and  .family  she  set- 
tled in  the  Santa  Clara  Valley  while  California  was  still 
Mexican  territory. 

Twenty  years  ago  Mrs.  Celis  became  a  resident  of 
San  Pablo,  now  a  part  of  this  city.  She  left  a  large 
number  of  grandchildren  and  great  grandchildren. 
There  is  now  (1914)  living  in  Los  Angeles,  Mrs.  Juana 
de  Rubio,  107  years  old.  She  is  the  mother  of  25  chil- 
dren. 

Doctor  Henry  Knox  Stratford,  formerly  one  of  the 
leading  physicians  and  surgeons  of  Chicago,  where  he 
practiced  sixty  years,  celebrated  today  (Aug.  7,  1912, 
at  Los  Angeles)  his  ninety-first  birthday.  Yesterday 
Dr.  Stratford,  in  remarks  to  his  guests  at  dinner,  ad- 
vised that  there  should  be  no  excesses  in  eating,  drink- 
ing or  smoking,  that  physical  exercise  was  one  of  the 
best  habits  of  life,  and  that  worry  should  be  an  unknown 
quantity. 

Doctor  Stratford  received  honors  from  the  Medi- 
cal Society  of  Chicago  and  the  Society  of  the  State  of 
Illinois,  and  served  a  term  as  President  of  the  American 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  119 

Medical  Association.  Mrs.  M.  C.  Wilbur,  96  years  old, 
living-  at  University  Mound  Home,  mentally  and  physi- 
cally active,  voted  yearly  and  takes  a  keen  interest  in 
politics.  On  July  24th,  1912,  there  died  at  Tuxpan, 
Mexico,  a  continuation  of  California  climate,,  Jose  Cal- 
vario,  185  years  old.  Upon  official  investigation  the 
church  records  show  he  was  born  in  1727. 

Saying  that  she  was  altogether  too  capable  to  think 
of  the  city  taking  care  of  her,  Lizzie  Lewis  protested 
vigorously  last  night  (August  10,  1912)  when  taken 
into  custody  by  Patrolman  T.  J.  McGuire  to  be  sent  to 
the  Almshouse.  "I'm  only  104  years  old,"  said  Lizzie, 
"and  I  am  perfectly  able  to  take  care  of  myself."  "I'll 
jump  out  of  the  window  of  that  poor-house  the  first 
chance  I  get  and  I'll  trot  over  the  hills  to  my  own 
shanty  again."  'Lizzie  has  been  living  in  a  refugee  shack 
at  Bryant  and  Eighth  Streets  since  the  fire  and  was  sup- 
ported by  the  charity  of  her  neighbors. 

Leverandi  Anuzzi  died  November  18,  1912,  at  330 
Green  Street,  San  Francisco,  lacking  three  months  of 
reaching  the  age  of  102  years. 

Mrs.  Iley  Lawson  Hill,  107  years  old,  now  living  at 
Lakeport,  California,  was  born  in  Adams  County,  Ohio, 
May  5th,  1808,  and  came  to  California  in  1854 — 61  years 
ago — is  another  instance  of  prolongation  of  life  by  leav- 
ing a  changeable  for  a  changeless  climate.  Mrs.  Hill's 
daughter  Mary  J.  Arnold  of  Lakeport,  writes  us  (1912) 
"My  mother  never  wore  a  corset,  lived  true  to  nature — 
led  an  active  life  and  worked  much  in  the  garden — she 
ate  meat  in  her  earlier  life  but  had  to  quit  it  on  account 
of  her  stomach.  Her  father  lived  to  be  84  and  was  a 
Revolutionary  soldier.  My  mother  is  the  oldest  living 
real  Daughter  of  the  Revolution. 


120  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

It  is  not  unusual  for  people  in  this  (Lake)  County 
to  live  into  the  90's.  Grandmother  Thompson  died  at 
the  age  of  112." 

In  the  year  1911  the  Board  of  Health  of  San  Fran- 
cisco sent  us  the  report  of  the  following  deaths  for  the 
year.  Herman  Isaacs,  95  years  old,  Sylvanus  Norton, 
100  years  old,  lacking  three  months,  and  Gunila  Olsen, 
104  years  old. 

Mrs.  Elizabeth  Gardner  Foord,  celebrated  her  101st 
birthday  in  Los  Angeles  August  16,  1911,  where  she 
lived  the  previous  37  years. 

Mrs.  Keller  is  living  (1912)  at  779  Santa  Clara 
Avenue,  Alameda,  103  years  old,  and  has  been  a  resident 
of  California  for  50  years,  and  attributes  her  long  life, 
as  do  the  other  California  centenarians,  to  the  climate 
of  the  Golden  State. 

Mrs.  Dolores  Gonzales  of  Santa  Cruz,  is  104  years 
of  age  (1914).  She  was  born  in  1810  and  claims  the 
distinction  of  being  the  oldest  native  Californian. 

In  Los  Angeles,  on  October  12,  1913,  Mrs.  Mercedes 
Foster  died,  aged  105  years,  widow  of  Stephen  C.  Fos- 
ter, first  mayor  of  Los  Angeles.  She  was  born  in  that 
city  and  last  of  ten  children,  all  of  whom  lived  beyond 
ninety  years  of  age.  Simeon  Thornton,  aged  96,  Daniel 
Dozier,  94  and  David  Hershey  Lighty,  91,  all  live  in 
Alturas. 

Gertrude  Alto  lives  (1914)  at  Old  Town,  San  Diego, 
aged  124  years.  She  is  of  Spanish-Indian  blood  and 
she  says  she  never  had  a  sick  day  in  all  her  life.  She 
walks  about  the  neighborhood  and  is  hale  and  hearty. 

Dr.  Henry  O.  Tanner  lives  in  Los  Angeles,  86  years 
old,  equaled  Elijah  of  old  (years  ago  fasted  40  days) 
lives  on  nuts  and  fruits,  taking  no  meat,  no  stimulants. 

There  lives  (1914)  at  San  Bernardino,  Mrs.  Felipe 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  121 

Espargo,  109  years  of  age.     She  has  a  son  Antonia  Es- 
pargo,  76  years  old. 

Mrs.  Catherine  Bowen  died  at  1505  Guerrero  Street, 
San  Francisco,  on  June  7th,  1913,  aged  106  years.  Thos. 
Dunbar,  101  years  old,  who  has  lived  in  Mendocino 
County,  California,  since  1884,  recently  walked  to 
Fresno — 250  miles — to  make  his  home  with  his  niece, 
Mrs.  Mary  Thompson,  who  lives  on  a  little  farm  nearby. 

Mrs.  Mary  Cleary,  101  years  old,  died  this  morning 
(December  8th,  1911)  in  "Old  Ladies'  Home",  after  an 
illness  of  several  months.  She  was  a  native  of  Ireland 
and  came  to  California  when  a  young  woman. 

Hyfelite  Allain,  104  years  old,  is  an  inmate  of  the 
Sutter  County  Infirmary  at  Yuba  City,  California.  Mrs. 
Conrad  died  July  14,  1914,  at  Boonville,  Cal.,  aged  101 
years.  Five  generations  attended  her  funeral.  "I've 
been  smoking  cigarettes  for  nearly  ninety  years,  but  I 
am  afraid  they  are  getting  me  now,"  said  Paticio  James, 
Spanish-American,  104  years  old,  the  patriarch  of  the 
San  Bernardino  Valley,  today  (April  27th,  1912.)  His 
remark  followed  a  visit  of  a  physician — the  first  to  at- 
tend the  old  man  in  all  his  long  life,  after  James  had 
fallen  to  the  pavement  and  lost  consciousness.  "I  think 
it  was  the  cigarettes"  he  continued,  "they're  making  me 
weak,  and  I'm  afraid  I'll  have  to  quit  smoking." 

Mr.  Wm.  C.  Reed,  of  Bakersfield,  writes  me  he  is 
101  years  old  and  in  perfect  health — eats  what  he  likes, 
but  is  temperate  in  drinking.  Henry  Trego,  a  retired 
rancher,  100  years  old,  lives  at  2063  Bush  Street,  San 
Francisco — until  five  years  ago  he  was  a  farmer  in  Santa 
Clara  County.  Daniel  Turner  of  Santa  Monica,  cele- 
brated his  107th  birthday  July  6,  1913,  chopping  a  quan- 
tity of  wood  to  show  his  vitality.  He  attributes  his  long 


122  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

life  to  never  worrying  and  by  never  marrying — and  to 
California  climate. 

In  Ventura  County,  July  6th,  1912,  Ra  Escobel  cel- 
ebrated his  110th  birthday,  and  says  he  is  still  a  young 
man  and  does  not  look  over  sixty,  yet  his  birth  is  re- 
corded in  the  little  Catholic  church  near  his  home,  and 
confirms  his  statement. 

Major  James  Armstrong,  a  Mexican  War  veteran, 
and  pioneer  veteran  Guardsman,  is  living  at  Petaluma, 
aged  94.  He  came  to  Petaluma  in  1854.  Lieutenant 
Colonel  Frank  Bridgman,  of  Coronado,  is  91  years  old 
and  the  oldest  retired  army  officer  in  the  United  States. 
Thompson  White,  of  Stockton,  is  100  years  old  and  in 
excellent  health.  He  was  born  in  Glasgow,  August  19th, 
1912.  In  1815  he  remembered  the  soldiers  returning 
from  the  battle  of  Waterloo. 

Mrs.  Ventura  Rodriguez  is  living  at  Tulare,  in  Tip- 
ton  township  110  years  old.  She  has  been  a  resident 
of  Tulare  County  for  many  years.  At  Eugene,  Oregon, 
a  continuation  of  California  climate,  Grandma  Sara 
Todd,  sister-in-law  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  celebrated  her 
one  hundred  and  second  birthday  today  (March  29th, 
1912.)  Nicholas  Theobonitas,  116  years  old — as  corro- 
borated by  books  and  letters  found  in  his  lodgings  at 
1353  Eddy  Street — died  in  this  city  (San  Francisco) 
October  3,  1912.  He  was  born  in  Greece,  came  to  Cali- 
fornia when  a  young  man,  and  his  great  age  was  attested 
to  by  his  compatriots  and  it  is  attributed  to  the  climate 
of  California — as  none  other  of  his  family  lived  so  long. 
Mrs.  Marcelina  Elisalda,  105  years  old,  of  Los  Angeles, 
married  Pleasanto  Leon,  80  years  old,  on  January  17, 
1913 — a  striking  example  of  both  longevity  and  virility. 

Mr.  E.  C.  Webster  lives  at  Grass  Valley,  aged  92 
and  Mrs.  H.  Place  at  Nevada  City,  also  92.  Mrs.  Mary 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  123 


Morton,  wife  of  the  British  General  Henry  Blake  Mor- 
ton, died  at  1621  7th  Avenue,  Oakland,  September  22, 
1911,  101  years  of  age.  Mrs.  Jonathan  Hunt,  102  years 
of  age  (1912)  hale  and  hearty,  lives  at  her  beautiful 
home  on  Piedmont  Hights,  Oakland — physically  and 
mentally  alert  as  a  woman  of  fifty. 

Mrs.  Mary  L.  Wood  died  in  1908  in  Portland,  Ore- 
gon, an  adjoining  state  and  a  continuation  of  the  Pa- 
cific Coast  climate,  at  the  age  of  120,  whose  great  age 
was  authenticated  beyond  question  by  the  Oregon  His- 
torical Society. 

Captain  Edwin  Bailey,  at  the  Soldiers'  Home  at  Saw- 
telle,  wrote  us  in  1910,  then  102  years  old,  a  detail  of 
his  life,  and  summing  it  all  up  in  this  terse  sentence  said : 
"I  attribute  my  long  life  to  a  strong  constitution  and 
temperate  habits."  He  died  in  January  1911,  aged  103. 
He  passed  half  a  century  on  the  ocean,  being  commander 
of  merchant  ships,  a  friend  of  Admiral  Farragut — serv- 
ing in  the  Mexican  and  Civil  wars — in  the  latter  sav- 
ing many  lives  at  Mobile  Bay  by  throwing  a  burning 
shell  fired  by  the  enemy,  into  the  water,  for  which  Con- 
gress voted  him  a  medal.  The  last  fifty-two  years  of 
his  life  he  spent  in  California  and  to  its  climate  he  owed 
his  great  age.  Juanita  Marshall,  109  years  old,  lives  at 
986  Jackson  Street,  this  city,  and  has  lived  here  since 
1850. 

Joseph  Josephs,  of  566  24th  Street,  Oakland,  died 
January  27,  1912,  94  years  old,  lacking  one  month.  The 
oldest  Master  Mason  in  California.  He  was  born  in 
Paris,  France,  and  came  to  this  state  many  years  ago — 
which  fact  gave  to  him  his  remarkable  longevity. 

Mrs.  Francisco  Clifford  died  September  14,  1913,  in 
the  Providence  Hospital,  Oakland.  She  was  born 
in  Monterey  in  1803, — lived  most  of  her  live  in  Weaner- 


124  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

ville— and  at  her  death  was  110  years  old.  Mr.  Charles 
R.  Bishop,  Vice-President  of  the  Bank  of  California, 
and  actively  at  work  each  day  in  his  office,  keeping 
longer  hours  than  any  of  his  clerks,  writes  February 
10th,  1912,  as  follows:  "In  reply  to  your  letter  of  the 
9th  instant,  I  will  say  that  I  owe  my  ninety  years  of 
fairly  good  health,  and  my  ability  to  work  almost  con- 
stantly, to  temperance  in  habits,  vigilance  in  business, 
and  freedom  from  superstition  and  fads.  I  have  lived 
24  years  in  Northern  New  York,  48  years  in  Honolulu 
and  18  years  in  San  Francisco  and  Berkeley." 

Mrs.  Mary  Ross,  95  years  of  age,  (1912)  resides  at 
997  Scott  Street,  San  Francisco,  is  as  agile  of  body  and 
keen  of  mentality  as  a  woman  of  sixty.  She  was  a 
native  of  Wales,  but  was  only  five  years  of  age  when 
she  came  to  this  country. 

^  At  San  Luis  Obispo,  on  July  31st,  1911,  Mrs.  Basilia 
Higuere  died,  96  years  of  age.  She  was  born  at  Mon- 
terey in  1815  and. was  the  oldest  native  daughter  in  Cal- 
ifornia. Charles  Konege,  103  years  old  (1912)  lives  in 
San  Diego  on  Ida  and  31st  Streets,  and  in  excellent 
health  and  bids  fair  to  live  many  years  to  come.  He  be- 
lieves his  long  life  due  to  California  climate  and  his  tem- 
perate habits. 

Dr.  Isadore  Sinard,  of  San  Juan  Capistrano,  is  104 
years  old  and  is  vigorous  of  body  and  mentally  active  as 
a  man  50  years  his  junior.  Mrs.  Lydia  Heald  Sharpless, 
of  Whittier,  is  105  (1915)  a  Quakeress,  active  in  politi- 
cal and  church  affairs,  and  writes  us  that  her  long  life 
is  due  to  "plenty  of  congenial  work,  being  of  a  happy 
and  contented  disposition,  and  living  in  the  glorious  cli- 
mate of  California,  with  its  flowers,  and  fruits,  and 
health  giving  sunshine."  Her  father  lived  to  be  101 
years  old.  Miss  Theresa  Lammon,  of  20  Montgomery 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  125 

Street,  (1912)  San  Francisco,  is  103  years  old  and  in 
vigorous  health. 

Mrs.  Howard  Smith,  who  lives  (1912)  near  Peta- 
luma,  is  108  years  of  age,  caring  for  her  poultry  daily, 
and  attributes  her  great  age  to  the  California  climate, 
having  been  in  the  state  for  52  years.  She  came  here 
from  Dayton,  Ohio,  in  1860,  an  invalid  with  incipient 
consumption  as  diagnosed  by  her  family  physician.  She 
lives  on  milk,  eggs,  fruit  and  vegetables,  using  very  lit- 
tle meat. 

Mr.  M.  P.  Alpha,  of  Alameda,  California,  91  years, 
writes  of  his  habits  as  follows :  "Plenty  of  exercise, 
early  rising,  drinking  water  before  breakfast,  moral 
life,  and  I  never  climb  a  hill  or  cross  a  bridge  until  I 
get  to  it."  L.  M.  Powers,  City  Health  Commissioner, 
of  Los  Angeles,  for  1911  reports  the  average  death  rate 
14  per  1,000  and  the  average  length  of  life  71.  This  is 
a  phenomenal  showing,  when  we  consider  that  the  im- 
migration of  invalids  into  that  city  is  probably  fifty  per- 
cent greater  than  any  other  city  in  the  world. 

To  show  the  increase  of  longevity  in  the  human  race 
during  the  past  three  hundred  years,  we  will  cite  from 
an  European  table: 

In  1560  the  average  duration  of  life 18  years 

In  1700  the  average  duration  of  life 23  years 

In  1760  the  average  duration  of  life 32  years 

In  1800  the  average  duration  of  life 33  years 

In  1815  the  average  duration  of  life 38  years 

In  1825  the  average  duration  of  life 38  years 

In  1895,  in  Massachusetts,  average  duration  of  life.. 44  years 

In  1911,  in  California,  average  duration  of  life 74  years 

Now,  when  we  find  that  in  India  the  average  life  is 
only  23  and  in  Los  Angeles  71,  we  see  that  climate  is  a 
factor  in  human  life  that  cannot  be  over-estimated.  In 
every  age  we  have  had  a  few  phenomenally  old  people, 


126  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

from  125  to  175,  as  a  reminder  of  what  the  human  race 
could  do,  if  we  lived  in  touch  with  nature. 

Longevity  is  influenced  by  climatic  conditions,  favor- 
able in  an  even  semi-tropical  climate,  and  lessened  by 
violent  changes.  Excessive  heat  enervates  the  body — 
while  excessive  cold  renders  it  torpid — but  a  golden 
mean,  such  as  we  have  in  perfection  in  California,  fav- 
ors the  completion  of  the  full  limit  of  man's  life. 

We  know  of  no  country  that  can  furnish  such  a  num- 
ber of  conditions  so  essential  to  man's  well-being  and 
happiness,  as  can  the  Golden  State. 

A  writer  under  the  soubriquet  of  "The  Chaperon" 
in  the  San  Francisco  Examiner,  has  given  us  a  brilliant 
word  painting  of  California  life  and  climate,  which  we 
here  produce — begging  the  anonymous  writer's  pardon. 

"What  a  pity  it  was  that  Fate  did  not  guide  that 
jolly,  young-hearted,  romantic  Ponce  de  Leon  to  Santa 
Barbara  instead  of  leaving  him  stranded  in  his  merry  old 
age  on  the  other  side  of  the  continent.  But  for  the  inter- 
ference of  Destiny,  the  dear  old  crazy  Spanish  Knight 
might  still  be  with  us,  spinning  pretty  fairy  tales,  ban- 
ishing creaky  age  with  the  scintillating  laughter  his  wit 
evoked. 

For  surely  Santa  Barbara  is  the  miracle  come  true. 
And  not  in  a  Quixotic  half-promise,  but  in  prose  actu- 
ality. For  Ponce  de  Leon  is  by  no  means  the  only  one 
seeking  the  enchanting  will-o'-the-wisp.  From  all  over 
the  world  they  have  been  coming  to  Santa  Barbara  and 
no  nook  in  the  civilized  world  is  so  remote  that  its  fame 
has  not  been  lauded. 

Peace,  set  like  an  exquisite  jewel  amidst  scenes  of 
ever-changing  beauty,  hovers  in  its  very  air.  It  is  wafted 
to  you  on  swinging  censors  of  blossoming  acacia,  from 
the  bitter  almond,  pungency  of  oleanders,  from  the  trop- 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  12T 

ical  breath  of  the  ever-blossoming  lemon  and  orange 
trees ;  it  reaches  your  ears  in  the  sibilant  undertone  of  the 
foraging  bees,  buzzing  an  anthem  of  contentment." 

While  California  encompasses  the  gamut  of  climate 
and  longevity,  the  reader  must  not  think  it  is  deficient 
in  intellectual  activity — for  in  this  too,  it  is  unparalleled. 
We  know  of  no  state  or  country — in  the  first  half  cen- 
tury of  its  existence — that  can  show  as  great  a  number  of 
eminent  artists  and  literary  men  and  women. 

Among  the  painters  of  distinctive  eminence,  we  might 
mention  Wm.  Keith,  Tom  Hill,  Chas.  P.  Robinson,  Theo, 
Worez  and  Arthur  P.  Mathews.  The  sculptors — Doug- 
las, Tilden,  Earl  Cummings,  Arthur  Putnam,  Pietro 
Mazzara  and  Marion  Wells.  The  actors — John  C.  Me- 
Cullough,  Ned  Buckley,  Mary  Anderson,  Blanche  Bates, 
Florence  Roberts,  Lotta  Crabtree,  David  Warfield,  Max- 
ine  Eliott  and  Adelaide  Neilson.  Among  the  writers, 
Miriam  Michelson,  Josephine  Clifford,  Eleanor  Gates, 
Frank  Pixley,  Frank  Norris,  Henry  George,  Prentice 
Mnlford,  Sarah  Carmichael,  Luther  Burbank,  W.  C. 
Bartlett,  J.  Ross  Browne,  Theo.  H.  Hittell,  Starr  King, 
Robt.  J.  Burdette,  E.  W.  Townsend,  John  Muir,  Ger- 
trude Atherton,  H.  H.  Bancroft,  Arbrose  Bierce,  John 
Vance  Cheney,  Ina  Coolbrith,  Edwin  Markham,  Geo. 
Davidson,  Geo.  Sterling,  Geo.  Hamlin  Fitch,  Lucius  H. 
Foote,  Jessie  Benton  Fremont,  Henry  George,  Bret 
Harte,  Mark  Twain,  Joseph  Le  Conte,  Jack  London, 
Jeremiah  Lynch,  Joaquin  Miller,  Chas.  Nordhoff,  Frank 
Pixley,  Robt.  Louis  Stevenson,  David  Starr  Jordon, 
David  Belasco,  Kate  Douglas  Wiggin,  Sara  Murray 
Thrasher  are  a  few  of  the  many  Californians  who  have 
attained  a  permanent  place  in  the  world  of  art  and  letters. 

In  every  department  of  human  endeavor,  success 
comes  to  the  man  who  possesses  energy,  judgment  and 


128  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


qualifications  for  his  life's  work — and  the  greater  the 
longevity,  the  greater  the  life  work.  Money  is  made  in 
California  so  easily  and  spent  with  an  abandon  that 
elicits  surprise  and  admiration  from  the  incoming  con- 
servatives of  other  countries.  The  enterprise,  public 
spirit  and  ambition  of  our  citizens  have  made  our  city 
and  state  rank  first  among  the  cities  and  commonwealths 
of  our  age.  California  is  a  state  of  hetrogeneous  popu- 
lation. We  have  received  tribute  from  every  nation — 
from  every  city — and  from  almost  every  village.  All  re- 
ligions, all  political  factions,  all  races,  all  professions, 
all  trades,  arts  and  handicrafts,  are  found  in  San  Fran- 
cisco. It  is  a  world  in  itself — as  fascinating  and  attrac- 
tive as  it  is  cosmopolitan  and  cultured  in  all  that  makes 
for  the  highest  civilization. 

We  think  of  San  Francisco  as  Old  Dr.  Johnson 
thought  of  London :  "I  have  no  need  to  leave  London" 
said  the  author  of  Rasselas,  "to  travel,  as  London  con- 
tains everything  in  the  world  worth  seeing."  So  Califor- 
nians  think  of  their  beloved  city  and  state.  We  have 
everything  here  that  is  found  and  produced  in  any  other 
city  or  country,  and  more — we  have  a  better  climate  and 
a  longer  life,  a  greater  variety  of  productions,  a  city  in 
which  every  wish  is  gratified  of  the  most  fastidious  epi- 
cure— ever  luxury  of  the  idle  rich,  every  opportunity  for 
the  most  generous  scholastic  culture. 

And  San  Francisco,  the  City  Beautiful!  She  has 
risen  again  in  her  glory  from  her  ashes  and  her  ruins, 
and  today  stands  the  peer  of  all  other  cities  in  her  mod- 
ernity and  in  her  picturesque  and  classic  architectural 
beauty.  The  fashions  of  Paris  are  on  our  streets — beau- 
tiful women  and  chivalric  men  crowd  our  thorough- 
fares— the  coffers  of  our  banks  are  bursting  with  their 
golden  treasure;  our  orchards  are  bending  with  the 


LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  129 

weight  of  their  fruits ;  agriculture  knows  no  limitations ; 
our  mountains  give  forth  their  precious  metals ;  our 
churches,  schools  and  universities  outrank  anything  in 
this  country  or  the  Old  World,  for  money  buys  brains 
as  it  buys  everything  else.  Our  citizens,  culled  from  the 
sturdiest  and  brainest  of  other  countries,  coming  to  Cal- 
ifornia with  its  ideal  climate,  its  abundant  and  multi- 
form resources,  must  of  necessity  make  our  Golden 
State  the  greatest  and  most  attractive,  as  a  country  of 
long  life,  of  opportunity,  of  progress  and  romantic 
achievement. 


130  LONG  LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Old  Age  Deferred Arnold  Lorand,  M.  D. 

The   Prolongation   of  Life Elie   Metchnikoff 

Instinct  and  Health Woods  Hutchinson 

Health  for  Young  and  Old A.  T.  Schofield,  M.  D. 

Long  Life  and  How  to  Attain  It. ...  .Pierce  Kintzmg,  M.  D. 

Report  on  National  Vitality Irving  Fisher 

U.  S.  Mortality  Statistics. 
California  State  Board  of  Health. 
San  Francisco  Board  of  Health. 

The  American  Indian Catlin 

The  Indians Stephen  Powers 

The  Mountains  and  Big  Trees  of  California John  Muir 

Yosemite  Trail J.  Smeaton  Chase 

The  Training  of  the  Human  Plant Luther  Burbank 

The  American  Cone  Bearers John  Gill  Lemmon 

History  of  California  Dr.  J.  M.  Gunn 

History  of  California H.  H.  Bancroft 


INDEX 


Page 

Abalsa,   Theresa,   Great  age 66 

Abernathy,  Dr 73 

Aborigines,  the  Longevity  of 56 

Abraham    16 

Adam  and  Eve 11 

Age,    old,    diet    of 36 

Aked,  Rev.  Chas.  F 112 

Alcohol  vs.  Longevity   27-  60 

Alaska,  Short  life  in 103 

Alfalfa 89 

Alexander,  Brief  life  of 14 

Almshouse,  Old  people  in 29-  68 

Animals,  Normal  age  of 12-13 

Annuals,  change  of   88 

Amiability  and   long  life 85 

Appendicitis,  mortality  of   60 

Arcus  senilis  in  age   99 

Arteriosclerosis  in  age  prevented 56 

Arundell,  Earl  and  Parr 35 

Atavism  and  heredity 23-  31 

Automobile  vs.   Horse.     Motor  cars   lessen  typhoid 32 

Bancroft,   George,    Long  life   of 14 

Bancroft,  H.  H.,  on  Indians 105 

Barton,  Clara,  Secret  of  her  long  life 44 

Beer  and  heart  disease 63 

Bible  Chronology  of  great  ages.    Mistaken  calculation...  10 

Elaine,  James  G.,  killed  by  worry 

Breathing,  deep,  the  benefit  of 

Brown-Sequard,  the   Elixir  of 78 

Bryant,  William  Cullen    82 

Buffon,  the  theory  of 21 

Bulgarian  Goat  Herders  55 

Burbank,  Luther,  the  California  Wizard 89 

Burns,   Robert,  short  life  of 14 

Buttermilk  and  Longevity   59 

Byron,  Lord 14 

California,  Climate  of — Long  life  in — Trees — Indians  and 

Whites   29-  50 

Cancer  caused  by  meat  diet 84 

Castration  for  unreformable  criminals  and  degenerates..  24 

vii 


Page 

Cattle,  Age  of 13 

Celibacy    shortens  life 19-  45 

Census  unreliable 33 

Charles  1st— Killed  Old  Parr 31 

Carlyle,  the  age  of 14 

Chateaubriand    « 15 

Cicero    , 45 

Cleveland,  long  life  of 18 

Climate  and  Longevity — dependent  on  each   other. ..  .48-108 

Coffee,  effect  on  nerves  and  heart 65 

Cooks  Kill  More  than  Cannon 52 

Corelli,  Marie 26 

Cornaro — his  rehabilitation    19-  27 

Crocker's  Old  People's  Home 72 

Crosby,   Fannie    85 

Dante    15 

Daubenspeck,  Jacob — long  life  of 72 

David,  King,  Prophecy  of 34 

Delicatessen   Stores    53 

Depew,  Chauncey 74 

Diamond,  Captain,  The  great  age  of 69-72-116 

Dwarfs  and  Giants,  Longevity  of 45 

Edwards,  Jonathan — genius  hereditary 15-  70 

Eugenics — should  be  adopted  by  nations 34-  71 

Europe,  Centenarians  in — more  in  Southern 34-  71 

Fisher,  Irving,  Vital  Statistics,  under  Pres.  Roosevelt.  .24-  67 

Flora,  Wonderful  in  California 88 

Food,  meat,  vegetables 67-  68 

Franklin,  Benjamin 14 

France,  Longevity  in 40 

Gabriel,  Old,  of  Monterey — Vegetarian 14-  97 

Gerocomy,  Practice  of 78 

Giant  Redwoods  of  California 90 

Goats'  Milk  and  Longevity 41-  58 

Goethe  15 

Gluttony  opposed  to  longevity 27 

Gorilla 56 

Goats'  milk  a'nd  long  life 77 

Harvey,   Dr.,   Autopsy  of   Parr 38 

Hill,  Iley  Lawson,  Great  age  of 119 

Heredity  and  Longevity  22 

Howe,  Julia  Ward,  Letter  from 43 

Hubbard,  Elbert,  on  longevity 47 

Humboldt,  Puny  in  early  life 81 

Hugo,  Victor 15 

Hutchinson,  Woods,  on  pure  air 56-71-  80 


Page 

Hygiene,  the  importance  of   27 

Indians,  California — phenomenal  age  of 54-    96 

Irrigation  among  Indians 104 

Isaac,  Age  of 16 

Ishmael,  descendants  criminals 70 

Jordan,  David  Starr,  opinion  on  alcohol  51-    61 

Juke  family 70 

Kenney,  Miss 113 

Kennedy,  Electa,  Secret  of  Long  Life Ill-  116 

Kintzing,  gives  rules  that  make  for  long  life 79-    83 

Kinnear  tells  how  to  live  200  years 74 

L'Enclos,  Ninon  de — her  beauty  at  a  phenomenal  age...     75 

Lazy  people  live  longest 56-    83 

Leo  XIII,  His  secret  of  long  life 82 

Long,  Old  John,  great  age  of  and  his  diet 16-    42 

Longevity  of  Whites  in  California 107-  125 

Lorand's  12  rules  for  longevity 38-     86 

Louis  II,  Youngest  Old  Man 33 

Marriage,  regulation  of  necessary 68-    69 

Mastication 63 

Meat — a  foe  to  longevity 54-    67 

Metchnikoff    37-55-    61 

Mills,   Mrs.  Susan Ill 

Mirabeau    15 

Montalva   29 

Moses,   Longevity  of 16 

Muir,  John 93-    94 

Napa,  Chief,  and  General  Vallejo 103 

Napoleon  died  from  worry 18 

Neilson,  Adelaide    58 

New  York  City — windowless  bedrooms 80 

Noah's  great  age  doubtful 16 

Norway — few   centenarians    •  •     35 

Oldest  man  in  the  world 97 

Osier,  Dr.,  age  of  40  only  half 26 

Osier   misquoted    31 

Pascal    15 

Parr,  Old,  and  Charles  1st  in  witty  repartee 21-35-     38 

Paul    30 

Perez,  Eulalia,  great  age 40 

Pine  Street,  S.  F.,  Accident 101 

Pliny    16 

Prize  Fighters  and  Athletes  die  young 83 

Pope 15 

Powers,  Stephen,  Travels  of  among  the  early  Indians..   104 

Raby,  Noah,  Great  Age  of 36 

ix 


Page 

Reid,  Whitelaw 75 

Religion  and  Longevity,  their  relation 82-  85 

Remondino,  Dr.,  on  California  Climate 49-  106 

Rush,  Dr.  Benjamin 73 

San  Francisco,  City  Beautiful 57-115-  128 

Seneca,  on  Man,  they  commit  suicide 12 

Sequoia  Gigantea   90-92-  94 

Serra,  Junipero,  taught  Gabriel  how  to  live  long 97 

Sex,  Factor  in  Longevity 81 

Shakespeare  and  longevity 83 

Sickles,  Gen.  Daniel  E 44 

Solomon's  Brief  Life,  too  strenuous 16 

Spain,  Many  Centenarians  in 30 

Statistics,  U.  S.  Mortality 60-  62 

Switzerland,  No  centenarians — its  altitude  cause 40 

Taylor,  Bayard,  opinion  of  California  children 51 

Tasso 15 

Tea,  the  effects  of 65 

Tejon,  A,  180  years  old 100 

The  "Goodf ellow"  short  lived 76 

Toad  in  Marble  in  marvelous  vitality 14 

Tobacco  and  Longevity 64-  65 

Todd,  Sara 122 

Trees,  Longevity  of  California 90 

Tropics  favorable  to  long  life 48 

Tuberculosis  cured  in  California 116 

U.  S.  Census  Reports 33-36-37-  62 

Vallejo,  General,  and  Old  Napa,  comic  interview 103 

Vatican  at  Rome,  "Old  Gabriel"  in 98 

Vegetarians,  Long  life  of — physically  stronger  than  meat 

eaters 

Ventilation,  Importance  of  cannot  be  overestimated.... 

Virility  denotes  longevity 

Voltaire  t 15 

Ward,  Artemus,  in  Piccadilly 80 

Warner,  Charles  Dudley  105 

Water,  food  and  medicine 52 

Wellington,  nerveless 18 

White,  Henry  Kirk ^ 14 

Wiley,  Dr.,  opinion  on  Eugenics 72 

Yuma  Indians,  Great  Age  of 99 

Zortay,  Pierre,  Great  Age  of — due  to  goats'  milk 63 


14  DAY  USE 

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This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below, 
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Renewals  may  be  made  4  days  priod  to  date  due. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


DAV!S 

INTERLIBRARY  LOAN 

APR  7     1071 

"       DAVIS 
&TERUBRARY  iOAN 

JUL  9     1973 

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LD21A-607n-8,'70 
(N8837slO)476— A-32 


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